How Chris Eubanks became the surprise hope for the American men at Wimbledon

Christopher Eubanks stood by the microphone on No. 2 Court as 4,000 spectators crammed in the stands, watched.

“You’ve just beaten your first top-5 player, you’re on debut here at Wimbledon, and now you’re in your first ever Grand Slam quarterfinal,” Jenny Drummond, the on-court reporter, said to Eubanks before the stadium erupted in applause. “Are you living your best life right now?”

Eubanks didn’t hesitate. “I feel like I’m living a dream right now,” he said.

At the start of the grass season last month, Eubanks had never won an ATP title, had never played in the main draw at Wimbledon and had never advanced past the second round at a major. In fact, Eubanks didn’t even like playing on the surface.

Now, after a dramatic five-set win over No. 5 seed Stefanos Tsitsipas, 3-6, 7-6 (4), 3-6, 6-4, 6-4, Eubanks is into the quarterfinals at the All England Club.

It’s so unexpected, even to him, that he has extended his hotel reservation three times during his stay.

The 27-year-old Eubanks is now the 13th man in the Open Era to reach the final eight in his main draw debut at Wimbledon, and the first American man to do so since 1984. He’s also the third Black American man to reach that round, joining Arthur Ashe and MaliVai Washington on what would have been Ashe’s 80th birthday.

On June 26, Eubanks was ranked No. 77 in the world, just a few places shy of his career-high mark. Now he’s No. 43, and is expected to rise to at least No. 31 in next week’s rankings.

“Everything from realizing that I have two credentials at Wimbledon for the rest of my life [as part of Wimbledon’s ‘Last 8 Club‘], to checking my phone and seeing my name as an ESPN alert, to realizing how much I disliked grass at the beginning of the grass-court season, to now look at where I am,” Eubanks said on Monday evening. “It’s been something that you dream about. But I think for me I didn’t really know if that dream would actually come true. I’m sitting here in it now, so it’s pretty cool.”

Eubanks wasn’t being humble when he said he was uncertain his dreams in the sport would ever come true.

Unlike many of his peers, he wasn’t a top-ranked junior player. He played a few events, but none of the Slams and was largely unheralded during the college recruiting process. Ultimately, thanks in part to his mentor Donald Young, an Atlanta native who was a…