If Monday night marked Christopher Eubanks’ breakthrough, Tuesday night took it to the subsequent degree.
“Ain’t no crying,” Eubanks stated as he walked into the media blended zone inside Hard Rock Stadium with a giant smile on his face.
The American had simply battled previous Frenchman Adrian Mannarino 7-6(2), 7-6(5) in a rain-delayed two hours and 11 minutes to succeed in the quarter-finals of the Miami Open introduced by Itau.
“It feels good, it feels good. Just like yesterday felt good, this feels great,” Eubanks stated. “Just something about all of the delays and the stopping, the starting, the warming up and cooling down and warming up, it makes a match like this even sweeter and to think it was for my first Masters 1000 quarter-final is really, really special. It feels great, it feels good right now.”
After clawing previous Gregoire Barrere within the third spherical, Eubanks was overcome by a flood of feelings. Not solely had he rallied from 2/6 down within the second-set tie-break, however the match put him in place to crack the Top 100 within the Pepperstone ATP Rankings for the primary time.
“I think last night was just so many different emotions just because of being down in the breaker, my mind kind of already floated to the idea of a third set, so to be able to come back and win it, it was a lot,” Eubanks stated. “It was a lot, saving five set points and to be able to come back, it was more just kind of shock that I’d actually won the match and then to find out afterwards that match put me in the Top 100, that’s when the emotion came out.”
After the emotional night time, Eubanks regrouped to oust veteran Frenchman Adrian Mannarino, one of many trickiest gamers on the ATP Tour. He is as much as No. 85 within the Pepperstone ATP Live Rankings.
“Today feels a little bit more like, ‘Hey, I’m here. Trust it,’” Eubanks stated. “I’m playing well and let’s just see how long we can keep this thing going.”
Eubanks has obtained an outpouring of help from colleagues within the tennis world in addition to loads of individuals outdoors of it. Jamie Foxx congratulated him on social media Monday night and NFL legend Chad Johnson was within the stands on Tuesday to help him.
Dear followers please congratulate my man @chris_eubanks96 on one more win tonight on the Miami Open, additionally inform him on the significance of publish sport McDonald’s to assist restoration 🎾
— Chad Johnson (@ochocinco) March 29, 2023
“It’s amazing man. It’s really, really cool. I’ve known Foxx for two, three years now and he’s become a really, really close friend, someone I can call if I just want to kind of talk through life a little bit,” Eubanks stated. “Chad and I really related for the primary time two or three weeks in the past. He posted a video taking part in tennis and I feel we had DM’d up to now and when he posted the video I commented saying, ‘Hey man that looks pretty good.’ He commented again saying, ‘I would love to get on the court with you,’ so I instantly shot him a DM I stated, ‘Hey I’m going to be down in Miami for the Miami Open if you wish to come out I can see about getting you a credential.’
“We were able to do that and he’s such an avid sports fan. He loves following tennis. He was super excited to be able to meet Carlitos today, he got to meet Tommy the other day. So he’s an all-around sports junkie. It was really cool for him to be able to come out. He stuck through one or two rain delays… It’s been really cool to see the outpouring of support. DJ D-Nice is another person who reached out and I got to meet. It’s been really, really cool.”
Eubanks’ run isn’t over but. The 26-year-old will play red-hot Daniil Medvedev for a spot within the semi-finals.
Source web site: www.atptour.com
