THE CHAMPIONSHIPS

July 12, 2023

Christopher Eubanks

Press Conference

D. MEDVEDEV/C. Eubanks

6-4, 1-6, 4-6, 7-6, 6-1

THE MODERATOR: Welcome to the press conference of Chris Eubanks.

Chris, great battle, but just came out on the wrong side. Give us your thoughts.

CHRISTOPHER EUBANKS: Yeah, no, it was definitely a fun match to be a part of. I think the fans definitely got their money's worth of entertainment and good quality tennis.

Just got edged out. Daniil is one of the best players in the world, one of the toughest players to beat for a reason. I think he showcased that well. He played exceptionally well in clutch, fourth set breaker. Played really, really well in the fifth. It's like his level elevated into the fifth where I had a little bit of a drop. He took control of the match from there.

All in all, I thought it was a very, very fun match to be a part of. A very, very entertaining match. Very pleased with how I played and how I fought back after losing the first set. First Grand Slam quarterfinal is never easy. Came out on the wrong end of it, but overall pretty pleased with the performance today.

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. How would you describe the run that you've had here, what it means to you, and the reactions that you've received?

CHRISTOPHER EUBANKS: I think I've said it before, but it's been like such a whirlwind of emotions and trying my best to kind of block everything out and just focus on the match.

But I think this morning it did kind of sit in a little bit after I woke up, just realizing that, Man, I'm getting ready to play a Grand Slam quarterfinal today. That's really, really cool.

I think that was kind of the first time -- even in Mallorca winning the title - that I really took a step back to realize the moment. I quickly tried to lock back in, focus, What's going to be the plan today against Daniil? Kind of try to go back to the same mindset I had had of blocking everything out.

But I did have about 5 or 10 minutes this morning in which I sat back and said, Wow, so many people from all over the world have been supporting me throughout this run. I woke up realizing I had to play a Grand Slam quarterfinal. I thought that was a really, really cool, cool thing.

Q. You said it was a really cool thing. Do you think that helped you or hurt you getting out of the moment? Because you were so insistent the other day about just a match, just a tennis court. The other thing you said the other day is if you give it your all, you can accept the results, the outcome. Regardless of what the result is, is that where you are right now?

CHRISTOPHER EUBANKS: Yeah, I don't think me taking five minutes this morning to kind of take a step back and absorb the moment really played a part in the match today. Like I said, I had about five minutes after waking up where I looked at my phone. Again, it's so weird, it's like an instinct, you wake up, you check Twitter to see what's happened overnight, almost like a newspaper. It was just constant me. I was just like, This is so weird. I looked at it, I was like, Man, I'm really about to play a Grand Slam quarterfinal today. This is cool.

Again, I was able to lock back in. My warm-up was great. I started out slow in the match, getting broken in my second service game. I think some of that is just the first time being in the moment. I don't think me taking a step back to enjoy it for five minutes this morning played that much of a part.

To the second part of your question, yeah, I'm more than okay with my effort today, how I gave it everything I had. It just didn't go my way. That's tennis. There's only one winner at every single tournament. You have to kind of take the good with the bad, take the positive lessons, learn how you can move from them.

I think this week, these two or three weeks have been filled with positives. I didn't win today. I'm disappointed about it. It's unfortunate for me. But I think I showed a lot of positive signs that I can take moving forward, so I'm okay with that.

Q. There's a video of you and Shelton saying where you wanted to be a Wimbledon quarterfinalist. Looking forward, what do you think this will kind of do to you having achieved this and your goals and aspirations, what you want to do in the sport?

CHRISTOPHER EUBANKS: In terms of what it's going to do, I think it's going to encourage me to continue to enjoy the process that I've been doing, especially over the past year I would say. Just continue to train harder. It's super cliché, but it's like I want to continue to feel this feeling.

If I know the work that I've been doing over the past 12 months played a part, contributed to me having the success I had here, there's no point in stopping it now. If anything, I want to do a little bit more. I want to be a little bit more diligent about the treatment I've been getting, I want to be a little more diligent about my fitness, those types of things.

I think it just serves as motivation to continue to do the things I've been doing.

Q. Was there any element at all of fatigue, whether mental, physical, a toll of the last two and a half weeks at all that played a role today?

CHRISTOPHER EUBANKS: You could look at maybe getting down a double break in the fifth as kind of being more dejected and disappointed. Like I say, I like to look at myself as a server. I don't like getting broken. I definitely don't like getting broken twice. I definitely don't like getting broken three times in a set.

I wouldn't say it was necessarily fatigue. I think it was just there's a bit of just disappointment. It's tough to kind of just completely throw out. Especially when I have been serving so well from the second, third, and fourth set on. Then to come out and get broken first game of the fifth, it's a bit of a disappointing feeling.

But also, I think Daniil raised his level. I also had to look at that and say, Man, he was not missing a single return. He was making me play every first ball. That's why he is who he is and that's why he's done the things that he's done in the sport.

You could look at maybe that last break, that last service game at 40-15, I went for two first serves. Probably want to have that back just to make him serve it out. All in all I don't think I would say fatigue really played a part.

Q. You are aggressive in going through the big shots, we've seen that throughout Wimbledon. Your stats for winners and unforced errors are larger than most. Is that always the way that you play? Is that the way you believe you would always want to play or would you ever consider yourself going for a more percentage-type game?

CHRISTOPHER EUBANKS: No, I know what I do well, and I know what I don't do well with. I know playing an aggressive game style typically bodes well for me.

So, yeah, it's a game style that I've had since I really started playing tennis at a high level, starting as a teenager, 15, 16, 17. I kind of went for my shots. I'm okay with living and dying by the mistakes. There are going to be days where I have a high unforced errors count. I know that comes with the game style, and I'm okay with that.

Q. Does this run, capping this really good stretch of your career, change maybe how you view yourself as a tennis player, how you look at your career at all?

CHRISTOPHER EUBANKS: Certainly. I would say I definitely believe a lot more in my ability to contend with some of the best players in the world. It's tough to really know until you've played some of the best players in the world.

At this point I played Sinner, played Medvedev twice, played Tsitsipas, I played Casper, Holger French Open this year. I've played some of the best players in the world. I've seen how my game stacks up against them, how I can disrupt them, how I can frustrate them. Sorry, Norrie, as well, who has been top 10.

I think it just gives me added confidence in my ability that I know I can compete with some of the best players in the world, whereas maybe I didn't fully know or believe that before.

Q. You mentioned the work you've been putting in. A lot of tennis players talk about how that's an investment when you're trapped in the 200s, 100s, without necessarily the funding, you can use the coach on-site or whatever. Will how you go about that change?

CHRISTOPHER EUBANKS: Yeah, in some ways. I think there's definitely something to be said for the better you do, continuing to invest in yourself. I think that's something I didn't do early in my career, although I had some of the opportunities with the wild cards and the Oracle U.S. Tennis Award. I was a bit apprehensive to fully invest in myself because I didn't know if I was still even good enough to take the risk.

My team right now, I mean, it's pretty good. We've been doing some really, really good work. I wouldn't want to change too much. It's more of a reinforcing what we have been doing and staying consistent with that I think is going to be more of my focus as opposed to saying, I've had success now, let's change something up, or let's bring somebody else on. It's like, For what? We've done some good stuff. Let's just continue this process and see where it takes us.

Q. You've had a fairly long career already. Have you ever had two sets where you struck the ball with such clean power as you did in the second and third? What does that tell you about yourself? This was your most important match.

CHRISTOPHER EUBANKS: I've had some days where I started lighting it up (smiling). I've had 'em. It's more so being able to sustain it for an entire match is where things get to be a bit tough. Some of the tennis I produced against Norrie was some of the best ball striking I've ever had, I've ever done.

But I've had those days where the ball just feels I can put it wherever I want at whatever speed I want.

It's not that I don't want to say that uncommon, but it was definitely some good ball striking in the second and third.

Q. What does it tell you about your ability to be able to do that in such an important moment on the Centre Court of Wimbledon?

CHRISTOPHER EUBANKS: I think it tells me that when I'm having fun and I'm playing carefree, I'm a pretty good tennis player (smiling).

Q. I wanted to ask about your relationship with the crowd. They really took to you this week. Have you had any experience like that before and how did you enjoy it?

CHRISTOPHER EUBANKS: The crowd today was unbelievable. Unbelievable. They were I think behind me pretty strongly from the moment we stepped on court.

I've had some good atmospheres before. But to play on a court like that that seemed to be at capacity was pretty special. So I would say that's probably one of the best atmospheres I've ever experienced. For the crowd to get behind me I think was really, really cool. Something a lot of tennis players may not get to experience.

I was very thankful for their support today. They definitely made that a very, very memorable match.

Q. On a slightly different note. A lot of the British media contains a lot of boxing metaphors because your name is similar to a former British boxer Chris Eubank. Do you know about him?

CHRISTOPHER EUBANKS: I know a little bit. I know a little bit. Not as much. I've started to learn a little bit more, especially being over here right after the French Open playing Surbiton. I got a lot of references to Chris Eubank and people were telling me about him. He's such a sharp dresser, big personality, things like that.

Yeah, I don't know too, too much. I think the first I had heard about him was probably right after I went pro. I had a Wikipedia page. All of a sudden I saw there was a name very similar to mine. That was back in 2017 or '16. That was when I started to be like, Who is this guy? He seems to be a pretty cool guy.

But, no, I don't know nearly that much about him. I do know he was a pretty sharp dresser and I guess I'd say flamboyant - is that a right word to use about him - British boxer.

Q. With Medvedev with the code violation, I don't know if you saw what he did. Did that upset your rhythm? Did it sour the performance at all? Other players have been potentially disqualified for similar conduct.

CHRISTOPHER EUBANKS: I have no idea what happened. I genuinely have no idea what happened. I turned my back, and then I heard the crowd. I saw he had a conversation with the chair, Damien Dumusois. They had a conversation. He went back to the baseline. Damien gave him a code violation. They went up and had another conversation.

I don't know what happened. I didn't see it. I still haven't seen it so I don't know.

Q. You have Daniil Medvedev and Alexander Zverev who are baseliners that are almost as tall as you are. What kind of challenge does your height give you and what do you do to get better moving on court?

CHRISTOPHER EUBANKS: Yeah, I mean, that's a bit of a tough question. Those guys are some of the best movers in the world. To be that size, to be able to move and cover the court the way they can. I can do all the movement exercises in the world. I'm 27. I'm not about to cover the court like Medvedev or Zverev.

I can get better at it. It's something I can work to get better for certain points if I need to defend a little bit. I can definitely work on it to get better.

Like I said, I also know my strengths. I know playing more aggressive, playing downhill tennis is what I've had success doing. I'd probably rather focus a lot of my energy on my movement up and back into the court, moving to the net, a little bit of covering side to side.

If I were to come out and play a match, and you see me playing as deep behind the baseline as those guys do trying to defend, I would have been off that court in an hour 15. I know that. I know that about myself. I know that about my game. I know that's not going to bode well for me.

I'll let those guys have it. They're phenomenal at it. That's just not really how I play.

Q. Now that you've made the quarterfinals, what do you want next? What is your next goal?

CHRISTOPHER EUBANKS: It's a bit tough right after the match to jump right into setting new, especially lofty goals at this point.

I think my goals are a little bit different. I think that if I can continue to have the joy that I had on court for these past three weeks, continue to work as hard as I've been doing over the past year, 12 months, I think good things are going to happen and it's kind of going to take care of itself.

It would be very easy for me to say I think after this, I'm not 100% sure, but I should be around 30-something live. It would be very easy to say, Okay, I want to be top 20. I've set goals based on a ranking before. It didn't go well. I've kind of thrown that out the window.

I'm just kind of enjoying the journey at this point. Wherever my career takes me and I can continue to have the fun that I've been having, I can continue to work as hard as I've been working, where I end up I end up. I think at this point, especially considering the fact I spent five years hovering in that 220 to 150 range, playing so many challengers, at this point it's just the cherry on top.

I'm just enjoying myself. I'm having a great time. I'm probably having the most fun I've ever had in playing tennis. I'm going to continue to try to ride this momentum out. We're going to see where it takes me.

I'm not trying to avoid your question or dance around it. It's just genuinely my perspective. Two years ago I tried to set the goal for here, here, where I want to be ranked, what I want to do. Didn't really work out that well for me. I'm trying to take a little bit of a different approach.