Eubanks into Wimbledon quarterfinals after beating Tsitsipas in five

Chris Eubanks scored the biggest win of his career by beating Stefanos Tsitsipas in the Wimbledon fourth round on Monday afternoon. Eubanks fired 13 aces and broke the Tsitsipas serve five times to triumph 3-6, 7-6(4), 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 in three hours and four minutes of play.

“(It’s a) dream come true,” Eubanks commented.

The 6’7” American made the dream a reality in part thanks to blasting a tournament-leading 84 aces during defeats of Thiago Monteiro, Cameron Norrie, Christopher O’Connell, and then Tsitsipas. However, it was a ferocious forehand and impressive one-handed backhand that helped him find so many inroads into Tsitsipas’ service games. Two of Eubanks’ breaks came in the decisive fifth, including one at 3-3 after he had just given a break back.

The world No. 43 eventually served out the match at 5-4, but not before saving two break points.

“I thought I played well when I needed to,” Eubanks said. “I didn’t feel like I served as well as I had in previous rounds…. Usually I’m able to produce a little bit more on the serve. Like I say, in tennis, you just got to play the big points–play certain points–better than others. I think I was able to play well when I needed to in order to get the win.

“To me that’s an even more promising sign: to say I can still win matches against high-level opponents even when I’m not just redlining the entire match, when I have a few ups and downs, but I’m able to lock in when I need to.”

Eubanks has been locked in this whole season, rising up the rankings from basically out of nowhere.

In March of this year the 27-year-old broke into the top 100 for the first time with a run to the Miami Open quarterfinals. He captured his first ATP title three months later on the grass of Mallorca. Now he is into the quarters of a slam for the first time.

“It’s tough to really put into words, but to be able to come out today and play the way that I did, just kind of take everything in, it’s surreal,” Eubanks confirmed. “I can’t really describe it…. I just think the entire experience all together has just been a whirlwind. It’s been something that you dream about. But I think for me I didn’t really know if that dream would actually come true. I’m sitting here in it now, so it’s pretty cool.”

Eubanks will try to continue the dream against Daniil Medvedev on Wednesday.

Ricky contributes to 10sballs.com and also maintains his own tennis website, The Grandstand. You can follow him on Twitter at @Dimonator.