American Christopher Eubanks captures first ATP title of career on grass courts of Mallorca
He just made his Top 100 debut in April and now, just three months later, he’s going to break into the Top 50.
American Christopher Eubanks has captured the first ATP title of his career, defeating France’s Adrian Mannarino, 6-1, 6-4, to win the ATP 250 grass-court event in Mallorca, Spain.
The 27-year-old Atlanta native is now projected to rise from No. 77 to No. 43 on the new ATP rankings, shattering his previous career-high of No. 74.
“It means the world,” Eubanks told ATPTour.com. “It means a lot of the hard work I’ve been putting in, the ups and downs throughout my career, it all is coming together now at this point in my career. It’s just a testament to the hard work.
“Now I want to keep working even harder to feel this feeling even more.”
It was already a breakthrough week for Eubanks after he reached the first ATP semifinal of his career, and he took it one step further in dramatic fashion on Friday by fighting off a total of five match points to defeat South Africa’s Lloyd Harris, 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (9), and reach his first career ATP final.
On Saturday against Mannarino he was in control from start to finish, storming out to a 6-1, 2-0 lead in just over half an hour and then trading holds with the Frenchman from there until it was all over, serving the match out comfortably at 15 to clinch his very first ATP title.
Eubanks made his Top 100 debut on April 3rd of this year, rising from No. 119 to No. 85 after a breakthrough run to his first Masters 1000 quarterfinal in Miami. This coming Monday, July 3rd—exactly three months later—he’s going to make his Top 50 debut.
With Frances Tiafoe winning in Stuttgart two weeks ago, this is the first time two Americans have won ATP titles in the grass-court lead-up to Wimbledon since 1984, when John McEnroe won Queen's Club and Johan Kriek won in Bristol.