Chris Eubanks’ story in his own words – The man who plays ‘total tennis’ and gets advice from Kim Clijsters

Shahida Jacobs
Chris Eubanks arms in the air
Chris Eubanks delighted after a match

Not too many casual tennis fans would have known Chris Eubanks at the beginning of 2023, but the American is making a name for himself with his recent performances.

If you are one of those casual fans then you probably would not have known that Eubanks was ranked outside the top 200 just over two years ago, but he gradually worked his way up the ATP Rankings and is now a star at Wimbledon.

At the start of this year, he was still outside the top 100 and after some decent wins for a player of his stature early in the campaign, things finally clicked at the Miami Open.

After coming through qualifying, he reached his maiden quarter-final at the ATP Masters 1000 event and the result earned him a spot in the top 100 for the first time.

Daniil Medvedev was the man to beat him in Miami, but the Russian was recently asked about the 27-year-old and said: “I say with my coach that he has kind of — I don’t know if it’s the same in English like it is in French — total tennis.

“He is not scared of anything. He just goes for it. [He] hits very, very fast and goes to the net as soon as he has the opportunity, has a big serve.”

After his Florida success, he played on the ATP Challenger Tour before exiting Roland Garros in the first round.

The switch to grass did not exactly get off to a smooth start as he lost early in the Challenger Surbiton Trophy as well as Stuttgart and Halle.

It all came together at the Mallorca Championships as he won his maiden ATP Tour title on July 1 and now a week later he finds himself in the fourth round at Wimbledon – beating 13th seed Cameron Norrie en route to the last 16.

It helps to have friends in high places as former world No 1 Kim Clijsters was on hand to give him advice during his early struggles on grass.

Eubanks famously shared his WhatsApp conversation with the four-time Grand Slam winner as he wrote that “grass is the stupidest surface to play tennis on, I don’t know why we’re playing on a court that’s so uneven, I can’t have my footing!”

Clijsters replied: “Try to do some little footwork drills every day in practice, even some mini-tennis games. Only use open racket and play in two service boxes. Stay low, use your slice on FH [forehand] and BH [backhand] side. Just for footwork.”

READ MORE: Kim Clijsters welcome to claim commission, says Chris Eubanks after ‘biggest win of his career’

His recent results have seen him move to a career-high No 38 of the Live ATP Rankings.

But who exactly is Chris Eubanks?

This was his reply when he was asked for his back story after his third-round win over Chris O’Neill at the grass-court Grand Slam.

“I grew up playing tennis in the States, in Atlanta, Georgia. I had an older brother that played tennis and my dad was involved with my brother when I came along,” he explained.

“When I got to the age where I could run and swing a racket, my dad put a racket in my hand. It just kind of went from there doing the normal route of playing local tournaments and junior tournaments and just trying to work my way up.

“I also was extremely, extremely fortunate to grow up in the city that I did at the time that I did, because there was so many players from the city, not too far from my house, that kind of went through the trials and tribulations before me and kind of really helped me out.

“Whether it’s Jarmere Jenkins, who’s Serena [Williams]’s long-time hitting partner, and got up to 180 himself. His older brother Jermaine Jenkins is now a coach, national coach at USTA, who played at Clemson. Donald Young who has been like a big brother to me since I was like 15. All of those guys grew up or were about 10 minutes away from where I lived. So I was so, so lucky to have those guys at my disposal from a young age.

“I had an older cousin that played tennis in Michigan State who kind of coached me from the age of 10 to 14. It was a really cool training.

“Jarmere was probably the first tennis player I ever looked up to when I was like seven or eight years old, and then my older cousin came into my life from 10 to 14, mainly my tennis part of my life, really worked with me. Then from like 15 all through college it was Donald Young.

“I always say, I was so, so lucky to have those people because they kind of took me under their wing and kind of showed me what high-level of tennis was like, and made me believe that it was possible.

“I took that on and went on to Georgia Tech and did three years there before turning pro at the end of 2017. Been trying to work my way up ever since then. About as good as I can get.”

Eubanks is the son of a Baptist minister and he admits a lot of values were instilled early on his life, but playing tennis also meant he missed a lot of church sermons.

“The funny thing is about being a preacher’s kid is when you’re playing tournaments on Saturdays and Sundays, you miss a lot of Sundays if you’re actually winning on Saturdays,” he joked.

“That’s where the woman kind of took up the mantel a little bit, taking me to tennis tournaments and doing that, and just continuing on with that journey of my life.

“I think it’s more so just about instilling faith at a young age is pretty important, especially to my parents, and I think faith can mean different things to different people.

“For me, one of the main things of having faith is just simply taking it into every walk of life, which could be also my tennis. It’s just trusting that if I keep doing what I’m supposed to do, it’s going to work out.

“I don’t know it’s going to work out. No one really knows if it’s going to work out. But just kind of having that belief that, hey, if I keep doing what I’m supposed to do, things will work out the way that they’re supposed to I think just kind of gives me peace of mind.”