Christopher Eubanks’ magical run through Wimbledon continued with an upset of No. 5 seed Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece 3-6, 7-6 (4), 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 to advance to the quarterfinals on Monday.
The 27-year-old Atlanta native, who played at Georgia Tech, has spent most of his pro career on the Challengers circuit and is making his first appearance at Wimbledon. He knocked off 12th-seeded Cameron Norrie in the second round, but Monday’s fourth-round triumph was his first win over a top-five opponent.
“I feel like I’m living a dream right now. This is insane,” Eubanks said in his on-court interview. “I’ve tried so much to block everything out, just focus on the next match as cliche as it sounds … but it’s surreal. It’s unbelievable. I can’t believe it.”
Through the first three-plus sets, Eubanks couldn’t break Tsitsipas’ commanding serve. But with the Greek serving at 4-4 in the fourth set, Eubanks got the first break, then served for the set to even the match.
Tsitsipas lost serve in the first game of the final set, then evened the match with a break of his own in the sixth game. He gave the edge right back to Eubanks, losing serve in the next game.
On paper, Tsitsipas outplayed the American. He hit 37 winners against 17 unforced errors to 53 and 56, respectively, for Eubanks.
“The funny thing about tennis is like you’re not always gonna play your best. You just gotta play, you know, really good at certain times, and I felt like I did that really well today,” Eubanks said. “When it came to really important times, I felt like I executed.”
Eubanks got his maiden ATP Tour win on July 1 at Mallorca. He now has won nine straight matches on grass.
In the quarterfinals, Eubanks will face Russian Daniil Medvedev, the third seed, who had a short day on Monday when his opponent, Czech Jiri Lehecka, retired with injury down two sets.
Medvedev will be making his first appearance in the quarterfinals in London.
Also advancing Monday was second-seeded Novak Djokovic, who continued his interrupted match from Sunday against 17th-seeded Hubert Hurkacz of Poland. Djokovic, in a quest for his 24th Grand Slam title, moved on with a 7-6 (6), 7-6 (6), 5-7, 6-4 win.
But he said it wasn’t easy.
“Big credit to Hubert for playing an amazing match, tough luck for him today,” Djokovic said in his on-court interview. “But he put up a great performance. Honestly, I don’t recall the last time I felt this miserable in returning games to be honest, due to his incredibly accurate and powerful serve.”
Andrey Rublev of Russia, the seventh seed, is Djokovic’s quarterfinal opponent.
The other quarterfinal match will pit top seed Carlos Alcaraz of Spain and sixth seed Holger Rune of Denmark.
Alcaraz fought back from a dropped first set to defeat unseeded Italian Matteo Berrettini 3-6, 6-3, 6-3, 6-3. Alcaraz locked up the victory after the Centre Court roof was closed early in the fourth set.
Berrettini finished with a 9-4 edge in aces and zero double faults, but Alcaraz won 53 of 67 first-service points (79.1 percent) to advance.
Rune also came back from a set down to beat 21st seed Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria 3-6, 7-6 (6), 7-6 (4), 6-3.
–Field Level Media
