It is rare that a match at the summit of elite sport, a contest that rips the prospect of success from the hands of one competitor and drains the body of both, ends in broad smiles and bonhomie all around. Yet this was the case after Daniil Medvedev played Chris Eubanks.
Medvedev’s cheeriness was easily explained. He had just won his first Wimbledon quarter-final after seven years of trying. Last year he was banned from playing and his jolly demeanour was also part of a charm offensive he has been undertaking in SW19. “I’m feeling great right now,” he said after the match.
Then there was Chris Eubanks. The 27-year-old from Atlanta, Georgia, had never played at Wimbledon before this year, never got past the second round of a grand slam event and had once been caught saying he “hated” playing on grass. But Eubanks has been the sensation of this tournament, his all-out, guns‑blazing serve-and-volley tennis claiming the scalps of Cameron Norrie and Stefanos Tsitsipas and his charisma winning over the crowds. A quarter‑final was beyond imagining and to lose it in five sets, 6-4, 1-6, 4-6, 7-6 (4), 6-1, was no shame at all. So he was all smiles, too.
“All in all, I thought it was a very, very fun match to be a part of,” Eubanks said. “Your first grand slam quarter-final is never easy. I came out on the wrong end of it, but Daniil is one of the best players in the world, and one of the toughest players to beat for a reason.”
Eubanks, a part-time analyst for the Tennis Channel, was not wrong in his assessment. Medvedev started off looking like he would win this match at a canter, but ultimately he was successful by being able to adapt when that plan went awry.
After Eubanks raised his game to pulsating levels – hitting big forehand after big forehand, one terrifying serve after another – the No 3 seed had to hunker down and wait for the storm to recede. In the fourth set he made adjustments, fine-tuning his own service approach, shuffling 10 yards higher up the court, and stymying his opponent. When the moment presented itself, a fourth‑set tie-break, Medvedev grabbed the game by its scruff and did not let go until he was three breaks up in the fifth. It was a quiet act of devastation.
“There was a moment in the match I just started losing kind of everything, the focus, the momentum of the match, which can happen of course at this level. Chris played well,” Medvedev said. “I managed to step up my serve in the fourth set. That’s what I was missing in the second and third. That was the key. That’s very important on grass.”
Next for Medvedev is Carlos Alcaraz, a man who “doesn’t stop” on court. “We see if you give him one easy shot, you can be in trouble. With Novak or Andy, even Rafa, you kind of feel like you can have a chance, but the thing is they’re going to have 20 more. With Carlos, maybe you’re not going to get this one. It’s one shot and sometimes it’s brutal. What he continues to do is just unbelievable. He doesn’t stop. I don’t think he will. But I played a lot of great players in my career. I managed to win many times. If I show my best, I’ll have my chances.”
As for Eubanks, he leaves SW19 having hit 317 winners, a Wimbledon record, learned a lot about a certain middleweight boxer from the 1990s and with a new sense of self-belief. “It’s super cliche, but it’s like I want to continue to feel this feeling,” said the man who was 124th in the world at the turn of the year. “If I know the work that I’ve been doing over the past 12 months played a part, contributed to me having the success I had here, there’s no point in stopping it now.”
Finally, to the Wimbledon crowd, with whom Eubanks has had an extended fling and who backed him vocally on No 1 Court – “show time baby!” – the American had this to say: “I’ve had some good atmospheres before. But to play on a court like that [and] for the crowd to get behind me was really, really cool and something a lot of tennis players may not get to experience.” Till next time, then.
