Not so long ago, it seemed like Chris Eubanks’ future in tennis was going to be in the broadcast booth rather than the show courts at Wimbledon. The former Georgia Tech standout had been out on tour for a handful of years but was struggling to break through and sitting outside the top 200 in the rankings during the summer of 2021.
“I got a real sit-down with my agent and (said) if I’m still 200 by next year and injuries haven’t played a part, I can do something else with my time,” Eubanks said Friday. “It’s not that glamorous ranked around 200.”
So when Eubanks started showing up on the Tennis Channel, doing week-long stints here and there, it felt like a transition was underway. And perhaps more than any other active player that has taken opportunities to do commentary, Eubanks was really, really good at it. No matter how long he wanted to play, he had a natural bridge to his next career.
But the 27-year old Atlanta native can put that decision off for awhile longer because he’s on the roll of his career right now, making the fourth round of Wimbledon on Saturday after a 7-6, 7-6, 7-6 victory over Australia’s Christopher O’Connell.
Here’s everything you need to know about one of tennis’ new faces.
Results finally coming
The basis of Eubanks’ game has always been his serve. At 6-foot-7, Eubanks generates a lot of power and kick that gives him a lot of easy points, matched with a powerful forehand and good net skills: A good combination for the slick grass surface at Wimbledon.
But the consistency of his ground strokes, and particularly his one-handed backhand, just wasn’t there against higher-level competition and held him back from competing regularly on the ATP Tour.
Eubanks finally won a first-round match at last year’s U.S. Open, his sixth time in the main draw of a Grand Slam, and did the same in this year’s Australian Open. But he admitted it was frustrating to get a taste of the big stage and not see those results translate when he went back to the Challenger Tour, one level below the ATP.
“That was one of the driving forces behind me even starting to do commentary,” Eubanks said. “I said, ‘This isn’t fun. If I’ve got to keep doing this, I’ve got to find something else to do.”
But things changed quickly in March at the Miami Open, one of the biggest tournaments outside the Grand Slams. After winning two qualifying matches to get into the main draw, Eubanks won four in a row to reach the quarterfinals, knocking off top-20 player Borna Coric and veteran Adrian Mannarino along the way before losing a tight match to Daniil Medvedev.
Major ascent in 2023
The ranking points Eubanks earned in Miami boosted him from No. 119 to No. 85. He continued to stack solid results from there but made his biggest breakthrough the week before Wimbledon at the Mallorca Open on grass, where he took his first-ever ATP title, beating Mannarino again in the final.
Riding a huge wave of confidence, Eubanks dispatched Brazil’s Thiago Monteiro in the first round at the All England Club and then pulled off the biggest win of his career Friday, defeating last year’s semifinalist and top-ranked British player Cameron Norrie in four sets.
“There’s tons of really good players who play professional tennis who never get the chance to play the No. 1 Brit at Wimbledon, in an atmosphere like this,” Eubanks said to a crowd that was so enamored with his game that they gave him a standing ovation by the end. “It didn’t matter how many people were for me or against me. This is something I’ll never forget for the rest of my life.”
With Eubanks in the fourth round, where he’ll face No. 5 seed Stefanos Tsitsipas, he is now at No. 38 in the rankings and will not have to worry about playing in qualifying draws or the Challenger Tour for a good while. In fact, it’s more likely that he’ll be a seeded player when the U.S. Open comes around next month.
Broadcasting still in his future
If anything, this run will only open more doors for Eubanks to be a prominent tennis broadcaster when he stops playing — or even now, as he said he plans to continue taking those opportunities “no matter what my ranking is.”
In fact, it may be part of why Eubanks is surging at this stage of his career. Eubanks said being in the broadcast booth and analyzing what other players are doing right and wrong on the court has helped him take the emotion out of looking at his own play when he’s on the court and not be as frustrated if he makes a mistake.
“If I’m in the booth, I can say, ‘That’s a good error,’” Eubanks said. “I think commentary has really helped my game, helped my ability to watch the match and play into a style and I plan to continue on doing it.”
