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

Shahida Jacobs
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A happy Chris Eubanks
Chris Eubanks disbelief after winning at Wimbledon

At the beginning of the grass-court campaign, Chris Eubanks felt out of place on the surface but a text message from Kim Clijsters has helped him to turn things around and now he finds himself in the third round at Wimbledon.

Eubanks lost early in the Surbiton Trophy on the ATP Challenger Tour at the start of June and it didn’t go match better at ATP Tour level as lost his opening matches in Stuttgart and Halle.

However, things finally clicked for the American at the Mallorca Championships as he defeated two seeded players en route to winning his maiden ATP Tour singles trophy.

After his title run, he revealed that former world No 1 Clijsters gave him some sage advice as he wrote on Twitter: “Major THANK YOU to @Clijsterskim for keeping my spirits up at the start of this grass court season.”

He added during a post-match press conference that he told the four-time Grand Slam singles winner during a WhatsApp conversation 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.”

Not long after he won the Mallorca title and on Friday he defeated British No 1 Cameron Norrie in four sets to reach the third round on his Wimbledon debut.

“Biggest win of my career, no question, by far. Considering the moment, considering the stage, who I was playing, where I played him. By far the biggest win of my career,” the American said.

Asked about how much he has improved on the surface since sending that message, the 27-year-old replied: “That’s a very different person now, I can tell you that much. I’m loving the grass right now. That person who texted Kim was not too high on it. Very different.”

He was also asked if Clijsters can ask for a commission.

“If she asks, she’s gonna get it. She’s a big, big contributing factor to I think some of the success, just keeping my mind fresh and keeping me up in spirits when I wasn’t,” he added.

Just over a year ago, Eubanks found himself ranked outside the top 150, but he hit the top 50 on the back of winning in Mallorca and is projected to climb to No 40 after his run to Wimbledon.

There have certainly been doubts along the way that he would never reach the big time and he even had a stint with the Tennis Channel as an analyst as a “back-up career”.

“There were definitely some low moments. I think that part of the reason I even got into commentary was because I had a real sit-down with my agent in 2021 and I said, ‘Listen, if I’m still 200 by next year and injuries haven’t played a part, I can do something else with my time’. Like, it’s not that glamorous if you’re ranked around 200,” he said.

“Luckily I’ve been pretty fortunate because I’ve been able to qualify into a few Grand Slams or get wildcards. I’ve had a little bit of taste of the bigger events. I’ve gotten extremely frustrated, just kind of getting a little bit of a taste of it and then going back to the challengers and not being able to produce consistently.

“That was one of the driving forces behind me even starting to do commentary. I said, ‘Man, this isn’t fun. If I have to keep doing this, I could try to find something else to do with my time’.”

“Now I think doing the commentary has kind of helped my game in a sense, and it’s something that I’m looking forward to continuing, no matter what, no matter what my ranking is.”

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