By Richard Pagliaro | @Tennis_Now | Saturday, July 8, 2023
Big Banks continues massive major breakout.
A streaking Christopher Eubanks slammed 65 winners conquering Christopher O’Connell 7-6(5), 7-6(3), 7-6(2) charging into his first career Grand Slam fourth round at Wimbledon.
Eubanks, who celebrated his first career ATP title in Mallorca last week, scored his career-best eighth straight Tour-level victory to set up a fourth-round showdown vs. Stefanos Tsitsipas.
It’s been a career-changing month for the 27-year-old power player from Atlanta.
Eubanks, who failed to survive four prior Wimbledon qualifying attempts, says he’s living the dream.
“It means everything,” Eubanks told ESPN’s Brad Gilbert in his on-court interview immediately afterward. “It means a lot of the hard work and the frustration that I felt during my career is all worth it for moments like this.
“Wimbledon, second week, the reason we play tennis. So it means the world. I’m excited to get back out here and compete in the fourth round.”
Win the set ✅
Kiss the net ✅@chris_eubanks96 was grateful for this slice of luck 😂#Wimbledon pic.twitter.com/AccfshZXjQ— Wimbledon (@Wimbledon) July 8, 2023
The 6’7″ Eubanks is known for his blazing serve and flame-thrower forehand. Eubanks scalded 23 aces today and leads the tournament with 72 aces.
Yet it was his return game that helped him seize command in the second-set tiebreaker.
In second set tiebreaker, Eubanks rocketed a backhand return winner down the line for 5-3 before angling a clean backhand return winner for three set points.
Eubanks slid a serve winner down the middle for a two-set lead. The Mallorca champion said varying his returns opened opportunity for those tiebreak strikes.
“I think my returns [were key],” Eubanks told ESPN’s Brad Gilbert. “Ironically enough, when I’m playing well, my serve is the contributing factor.
“I’ve been serving well the past couple of weeks. I wanted to give a little more credit to the returns today. I returned exceptional. I changed it up, used a lot of variety—chip, hit—I thought I had good variance on it and I think I came up clutch when I needed to.”
Photo credit: Mike Hewitt/Getty
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