The story of Christopher Eubanks who surprised the tennis world with his Wimbledon 2023 performance Premium

Christopher Eubanks, the last American man in the Wimbledon draw, is a rising star from Atlanta, Georgia. He was introduced to tennis at age two by his father, Mark Sr., and went on to win his first ATP title on grass in Mallorca prior to the Slam. He played college tennis at Georgia Tech, made his Grand Slam debut in 2017, and made his main draw debut at Wimbledon this year. After a conversation with Kim Clijsters, he improved his game on grass and went on to win his first Tour-level title on the surface. He has been congratulated by Hugh Jackman and Mike Tyson, and appeared on Good Morning America.

When this year’s edition of The Championships began on July 3, Christopher Eubanks was one of the 13 American men in the singles main draw. In the presence of players like Taylor Fritz, Frances Tiafoe and Tommy Paul, not much was expected from 27-year-old Eubanks, even though he had won his maiden ATP title on grass in Mallorca the week prior to the Slam.

As it turns out, Eubanks is the last American man left in the draw but only after his stunning victories over British No. 1 Cameron Norrie and fifth-seeded Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas on the way to the last-eight stage.

Here’s all you need to know about the rising star from the US:

Christopher, the son of Mark and Carla, hails from Atlanta, in the southeastern US state of Georgia. He has a brother named Mark, who is 13 years older. Mark Sr. introduced his elder son to tennis while Christopher sat and watched. Mark even managed to get a college scholarship but did not have the passion for the spot.

However, it was a different case when it came to Christopher. “I don’t know how old [Chris] was, but he started walking. And then he started running. And we would take him out to the court and he wouldn’t sit long enough. So I just put a racquet in his hand. It was around age two, I think, that I put a racquet in his hand and I noticed he had good eye-hand coordination and then we just built from there, “ Mark Sr. told the atptour.com in an interview.

Mark Sr., who has also been in the pastoral ministry for more than three decades, never played the sport professionally, but learnt the technicalities while playing with colleagues from the airline he worked for. He taught young Christopher during his initial years, including the use of both his hands for the forehand and backhand shots, since he wanted him to play with a regular-sized racquet. Eventually, he did switch to the single-handed forehand and backhand.

Later on, Eubanks learnt from former Top 50 player Donald Young but did not play a lot of junior events during his teen years.