Chris Eubanks’s Wimbledon journey may be over but the American enjoyed a ‘indescribable’ fairytale tournament with a few upsets along the way.
The 27-year-old made the quarterfinals at the Grand Slam in a career best run that saw him stun world No 5 Stefanos Tsitsipas in five-set thriller before ultimately taking his final bow in defeat to No. 3 seed Daniil Medvedev after taking the Russian all the way to a final set.
Despite not managing to topple yet another giant in the quarterfinals, Eubanks said the achievement of making it that far was only just beginning to hit him.
‘I think in the past 24 hours, or maybe 12 hours since I lost, it’s starting to settle in that while I’m actually a Wimbledon quarterfinalist,’ he said on the Today Show Thursday.
‘It’s a dream come true. I showed up here playing really well in the tournament prior to Wimbledon and taking my first title, but still a bit uncertain on how I would fare here.’
Chris Eubanks’s Wimbledon journey may be over but he enjoyed a ‘indescribable’ fairytale run
Eubanks told the Today Show that it was a ‘dream come true’ to have reached the quarterfinals
The American took his final bow in SW19 in quarterfinal defeat to No. 3 seed Daniil Medvedev
He continued: ‘The second round comes, I’m playing the number one Brit, I get past that and then things just kind of started to fall into place. It’s indescribable.’
The American said he was able to overcome the pressure by enjoying every moment on the court.
‘I think enjoying it was the biggest thing,’ he said. ‘There’s times throughout the match where I’m smiling, I’m pretty expressive with my emotions but at the end of the day it’s still just the a tennis match. The court is the same size, the net still the same height and it’s still the sport I’ve been playing since I was two-years-old.
‘I’m at a stage now where I can enjoy those situations, even when my back’s against the wall, even when things aren’t going well, to just say, “Hey, just stick with it. Things are going to work out.”‘
This year marked Eubanks’s first appearance at SW19 after spending a lot of his career hovering outside the world top 100.
But, now ranked 43rd on the ATP Tour and a member of Wimbledon’s exclusive Last 8 club, Eubanks admitted that his career hasn’t always been easy.
‘It’s not nearly that glamorous, believe it or not,’ he said with a laugh. ‘There’s a lot of tough times, there’s a lot of ups and downs, ups and downs.
‘At that point, I just said wherever my career is going to take me it’s going to take me and it’s a bit of my hands, and I’m just going to allow things to play out,’ Eubanks said. ‘If I’m meant to be a top 100 player, I’ll get there in my own time, and if I’m meant to be a top 50 player, I’ll get there my own time. But for so long, I tried to force it and I wanted it so so bad.’
‘It’s amazing when I just take a step back and just allow my faith in it, and in the process, and just my faith in general to just take over, good things started to happen,’ he continued.
‘It’s not always easy, having faith isn’t always easy, but it definitely gets tested in those times and I think I was able to have strong faith and now I’m standing here talking to you guys.’
The 27-year-old admitted that he’s ‘pretty expressive with my emotions’ while on the court
Eubanks made the quarterfinals in a career best run that saw him stun Stefanos Tsitsipas
Eubanks also spoke to Good Morning America Thursday after his tournament ended
Eubanks also spoke to Good Morning America and admitted that he had begun to doubt whether his dream would ever become a reality.
‘I’ve been in that very same situation where you want something so bad and you begin to doubt whether or not it might actually happen,’ he said.
‘But for me I felt that the weight and the burden lifted off my shoulders when I just accepted the fact that if it’s meant to be, it will be and it’s going to be in its own time.’
Eubanks will be back Stateside in August in the hope of wowing the home crowd at the US Open in New York.
