By Richard Pagliaro | @Tennis_Now | Saturday, July 8, 2023
Big Banks continues huge main breakout.
A streaking Christopher Eubanks slammed 65 winners conquering Christopher O’Connell 7-6(5), 7-6(3), 7-6(2) charging into his first profession Grand Slam fourth spherical at Wimbledon.
Eubanks, who celebrated his first profession ATP title in Mallorca final week, scored his career-best eighth straight Tour-level victory to arrange a fourth-round showdown vs. Stefanos Tsitsipas.
It’s been a career-changing month for the 27-year-old energy participant from Atlanta.
Eubanks, who did not survive 4 prior Wimbledon qualifying makes an attempt, says he is residing the dream.
“It means everything,” Eubanks informed ESPN’s Brad Gilbert in his on-court interview instantly afterward. “It means a lot of the hard work and the frustration that I felt during my career is all worth it for moments like this.
“Wimbledon, second week, the rationale we play tennis. So it means the world. I’m excited to get again out right here and compete within the fourth spherical.”
Win the set ✅
Kiss the web ✅@chris_eubanks96 was grateful for this slice of luck 😂#Wimbledon pic.twitter.com/AccfshZXjQ— Wimbledon (@Wimbledon) July 8, 2023
The 6’7″ Eubanks is known for his blazing serve and flame-thrower forehand. Eubanks scalded 23 aces today and leads the tournament with 72 aces.
Yet it was his return game that helped him seize command in the second-set tiebreaker.
In second set tiebreaker, Eubanks rocketed a backhand return winner down the line for 5-3 before angling a clean backhand return winner for three set points.
Eubanks slid a serve winner down the middle for a two-set lead. The Mallorca champion said varying his returns opened opportunity for those tiebreak strikes.
“I believe my returns [were key],” Eubanks told ESPN’s Brad Gilbert. “Ironically sufficient, after I’m enjoying nicely, my serve is the contributing issue.
“I’ve been serving well the past couple of weeks. I wanted to give a little more credit to the returns today. I returned exceptional. I changed it up, used a lot of variety—chip, hit—I thought I had good variance on it and I think I came up clutch when I needed to.”
Photo credit score: Mike Hewitt/Getty
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