In a men’s draw that has been low on excitement so far, the story of Christopher Eubanks has been a breath of fresh air. The American will have his toughest test yet on Court 1 Wednesday with Daniil Medvedev waiting in between him and the last four. Eubanks was ranked No. 119 during their only career meeting earlier in the year, showing nature of his improvements in 2023.
Hitting 53 winners in his 3-6 7-6 3-6 6-4 6-4 win over Stefanos Tsitsipas, Eubanks sealed his spot in a slam quarter final for the first time. It is actually even the only time he has made the third round or better, with early exits and qualifying making up the majority of his tournaments. The American looks comfortable with the occasion so there shouldn’t be any concern in future regarding his ability to handle the big occasion. “When it came to really important times, I feel like I executed really clearly, and I played well. I feel like I had ups and downs, which you can imagine [playing] for the first time in the fourth round of a Slam, but I came up clutch when I needed to.” he said.
It wasn’t only the women’s draw that saw a retirement in the fourth round although Medvedev was far closer to victory before his match came to an end. He led 6-4 6-2 against Jiri Lehecka before the Czech ended the match due to a foot injury. “I honestly did not know until he retired,” Medvedev said. “I mean, I saw that his movement was a little bit restricted, but the way he struck the ball, I thought it was not going to cause him [too much] trouble. But when he retired, I was like, ‘OK, I see it’s different’.
It’s likely that Eubanks will go the way of the other unseeded at this stage of the tournament, Roman Safiullin. The American has the heart and the power to live with Medvedev but maintaining that consistently against such a player as comfortable defending from the baseline is going to be much tougher. Medvedev will look to target the one handed backhand of Eubanks, a shot that is highly likely to break down at some point with the Russian keeping the pressure on.
Prediction – Daniil Medvedev in four sets
