Tuesday, October 29

Chris Eubanks Portrays Icon Arthur Ashe in Current Documentary

By Erik Gudris | @ATNTennis | Monday July 10, 2023

Christopher Eubanks, earlier than his electrifying run on the All-England Club, portrayed one of many sport’s icons in two documentaries.

Now they each share a bit of Wimbledon historical past.

Tennis Express

The 27-year-old Eubanks continues to captivate tennis followers together with his stellar run at Wimbledon this yr, the place his 5 set victory over No. 5 seed Stefanos Tsitisipas positioned Eubanks into the final eight on the occasion in his fundamental draw match debut.

A couple of years in the past, Eubanks lived a completely totally different tennis expertise, when he had the chance to painting one of many sport’s nice champions – Arthur Ashe – in two separate documentaries concerning the legendary participant and activist.

Just final yr, Eubanks appeared as a younger Ashe within the CNN documentary “Citizen Ashe.” Eubanks posted about his look on his social media.

After his win over Tsitsipas, Eubanks was requested about his expertise participating within the documentary and what he may ask the good Ashe if he might sit down with him.

“If I had that opportunity, I’d honestly just want to pick his brain on what he thinks of my game,” he said. “That would probably be the coolest thing, to be able to say, ‘Hey, maybe you’ve seen me play, what do you think? Where are some areas I can improve? I know that you got a pretty big serve, you had a good forehand, you had a nasty backhand slice. I’m trying to do a little bit of that. You like it? You don’t?’ Just to kind of get his honest opinion.”

Eubanks, 27, and in the midst of a career year, says that by portraying Ashe, he got to know the American tennis legend, icon and human rights activist even better.

“To be able to portray him in that documentary was really, really cool,” he said. “It was an experience not just doing film, which was a bit different, something I’d never done before, but also having to do the research that I did, having to go back and watch old film to try to get the technique down. Also watching tons of interviews of him just to try to learn his demeanor, his perspective on things, his philosophy, how important education was.”

A couple of years earlier in 2018, Eubanks additionally portrayed Ashe in one other documentary “The Ashe ’68 VR Experience” that was first featured on the 2018 US Open after which later premiered on the 2019 Sundance Film Festival.

That brief documentary showcased Eubanks as Ashe whereas it advised the story of Ashe turning into the primary Black American to win the US Open males’s singles title in 1968.

“It was also super, super rewarding when I got to see the final project. It was something that I take great pride in and I’m excited I was selected to be able to do it,” Eubanks added concerning the expertise.

Ashe, who received Wimbledon in 1975, and the Australian Open in 1970, handed away at age 49 in 1993 as a consequence of AIDS-related pneumonia.

With Eubanks’s personal run to the Wimbledon quarterfinals, he turns into solely the third U.S. Black American man to succeed in the final eight on the All-England Club together with Ashe and 1996 finalist MaliVai Washington, because the begin of the Open Era.

Ashe, who received 793 ATP matches and 44 titles, would have turned 80 right now.

Eubanks will subsequent play Daniil Medvedev within the quarterfinals.

Photo Credit: Mike Hewitt/Getty


Content Source: www.tennisnow.com