Chris Eubanks simply cannot lose right now–not even when he is seemingly on the brink of defeat.
Okay, Eubanks did lose in the quarterfinals at Wimbledon. But that was in a five-set battle against world No. 3 Daniil Medvedev. And that’s the only time the 6’7” American has lost in his last three tournaments, a stretch that includes his first ATP title on the grass courts of Mallorca and now a quarterfinal performance at the Atlanta Open.
An Atlanta native, Eubanks improved to 11-1 in his last 12 matches with a 6-7(4), 6-4, 7-5 victory over Brandon Nakashima during second-round action on Wednesday night. The No. 5 seed struck 21 aces, served at 72 percent, and saved all seven of the break points he faced to prevail after two hours and 21 minutes.
It was Nakashima who had the upper hand most of the way. The 2021 Atlanta runner-up took the first set in a tiebreaker and although he dropped the second he at least got to start the third set on his own serve. Nakashima earned two break points at 1-0 in the decider, but–as was the story of the night–he could not convert. It wasn’t until Eubanks broke serve at 5-5 that he finally played with a lead.
It was a lead that almost evaporated right away. Eubanks promptly fell into a 0-40 hole while serving for the match, but huge serving helped him erase all three breaks and eventually clinch victory.
“I’ve always said I like to think of myself as a server,” Eubanks commented. “Servers make their name serving out sets, serving out matches. To get down 0-40, Brandon came up with some good returns. I was just like, ‘alright; law of averages…. I’ve held every single game. I’ve put together some good serves; he just played three really good points to get up 0-40.’ Just go back to what I know–hit my spots, trust it.
“I was able to do that and come up with some big serves. I was really proud I was able to get back to deuce and then close it out with an ace.”
The world No. 32 will face Aleksandar Vukic in the quarterfinals on Friday. Also in the bottom half of the draw in the last eight are Alex de Minaur and Ugo Humbert, who earned respective straight-set victories over Thanasi Kokkinakis and Lloyd Harris.
nice one, Chris