Christopher Eubanks shocked the tennis world on Monday, beating the No. 5 seed Stefanos Tsitsipas in a stunning upset at Wimbledon. Making it this far was already a long shot for the 27-year-old Atlanta native. Prior to the tournament, the odds of Eubanks winning Wimbledon were 100 to 1. Now, he’ll make his first ever appearance in a major quarterfinal against world ranked No. 3 Daniil Medvedev on Wednesday, where he’ll look to keep his Cinderella run alive.
Here are five facts about the United States’ newest tennis superstar.
His dad is a Baptist minister
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Christopher’s dad, Chris Eubanks, is a Baptist minister back home in Georgia. He’s also a former college tennis player, who coached Christopher until he was 13 years old. “The funny thing about being a preacher's kid is when you're playing tournaments on Saturdays and Sundays, you miss a lot of Sunday services,” Eubanks said of his father. His mother, Carla, would join him during his Sunday matches while his dad preached.
He almost retired due to COVID-19
Eubanks was hitting his stride when the world was shut down by the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic. Ranked around 200 at the time, Eubanks said he had a serious talk with his agent about switching careers at one point. “I said, ‘Listen, if I’m still 200 by next year and injuries haven’t played a part, I can do something else with my time,’” Eubanks recalled after beating Cameron Norrie on Friday. “It’s not that glamorous if you’re ranked around 200.”
He's friends with Jamie Foxx
Eubanks posted a video with the actor back in 2020, in which Foxx tried to return one of his serves. Spoiler alert—he couldn’t, but the pair have become good friends ever since. Foxx congratulated Eubanks on Instagram when he broke into the Top 100 players in the world earlier this year. “It’s amazing man. It’s really, really cool,” Eubanks said of the friendship. “I’ve known Foxx for two, three years now and he’s become a really, really close friend, someone I can call if I just want to kind of talk through life a little bit.”
He’s tall—really tall
Eubanks is 6’7”. Tennis players aren’t exactly known for being short—Novak Djokovic is 6’2” and both Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal are 6’1”—but Eubanks still towers over most of his competition. As a result, he has a wicked serve, and leads the entire tournament in aces. Until Monday’s win against Tsitsipas, he clocked more than 20 aces in each of his previous matches in the tournament.
He hates grass
Last month, Eubanks had a disappointing exit at a lower-level ATP Challenger Tour competition in England. He lost in straight sets to a player outside the Top 100, winning just about $2,500 in prize money. After the loss, he reached out to four-time Grand Slam champion Kim Clijsters for advice. “I was just kind of frustrated,” he recalled. “I sent her a text, and I was like, ‘Grass is the stupidest surface to play tennis on. Why are we playing tennis—a sport in which we need the ball to bounce—on a very inconsistent surface?’ And you can’t move on it.”
