When Chris Eubanks took a job in TV last year he figured it was his best chance of getting close to tennis’ biggest occasions. Ranked outside the top 150 and pushing 27 years old he was tiring of scratching a living on the challenger tours.
He signed up as a commentator on the Tennis Channel, started calling matches and an astonishing thing happened - his own game transformed.
At Wimbledon on Monday he toppled No.5 seed Stefanos Tsitsipas in five sets to reach his first Grand Slam quarter-final. It came a week after he won his first grass court tournament in Mallorca on a surface he said he hated. Pinch himself? You bet he did.
“Dream come true,” said the American, shaking his head. “It’s tough to really put into words. It's surreal. I can't really describe it.”
Eubanks, previously best known for acting as a double for tennis legend Arthur Ashe in the documentary Citizen Ashe, came off Court Two and turned on his phone.
His notifications showed an ESPN alert with his name in the sporting headlines. He thought back to what he had said about disliking grass and shook his head a second time.
“The entire experience has just been a whirlwind,” he said. “Something you dream about. I didn't really know if that dream would actually come true. But I'm sitting here in it now, so it's pretty cool.”
Eubanks had begun the grass court season with early exits at three low-rank events. Now he faces world number three Daniil Medvedev for a place in the semi-finals of Wimbledon.
And he has done it in swashbuckling style, firing more winners (247) en route to the last-eight than any player in the Open Era bar Wayne Ferreira in 1992.
“It's been a bit of a blur, if I'm being honest,” he said, after outlasting Andy Murray's Greek conqueror 3-6, 7-6, 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 in a shade over three hours.
He thought back to the times good pals Coco Gauff and Naomi Osaka had urged him to believe he belonged at this level. To the WhatsApp exchange with Kim Clijsters in which he vented his frustration before concluding: “Grass is the stupidest surface to play tennis on".
The four-time Grand Slam singles winner calmly told the 6’7 giant to work on footwork drills every day in practice. How it paid off. First in Mallorca then here, beating British No1 Cam Norrie and now claiming his first top-five scalp. No wonder Eubanks said a public thank you to Clijsters last night.
“Those words about hating grass will never come out of my mouth for the rest of my career,” he pledged. “Right now, it's my best friend.”
