The remarkable run is over.
Christopher Eubanks called his experience at Wimbledon “a dream come true” when he reached the quarterfinals with a five-set victory. His tournament ended Wednesday with another five-set match. He still must be pinching himself.
Eubanks lost to No. 3 Daniil Medvedev 6-4, 1-6, 4-6, 7-6 (4), 6-1 in a match that had spectators - in England and the United States - on the edge of their seats. After losing the fourth set in a tiebreaker to even the match, Eubanks had his serve broken three times in the fifth and deciding set.
The 27-year-old Eubanks, from Westlake High and Georgia Tech, advanced farther than he had in any of his nine Grand Slam appearances. He was making his first appearence in the Wimbledon main draw, coming in as the No. 43 ranked player in the world after winning his first ATP Tour event just last week.
A watch party at Tech was one example of those in the United States cheering on the last remaining American male at the tournament. The last American male to win Wimbledon with Pete Sampras in 2000, the last of his seven titles in eight years.
No. 3-seeded Medvedev, who will face No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz in the semifinals on Friday.
Following his victory over No. 5 Stefanos Tsitsipas on Monday to reach the quarterfinals, Eubanks called the experience “surreal.”
“ I don’t think there’s one in particular, I think there’s a few different ones,” Eubanks said when asked what was the hardest part to believe on his run. “Everything from realizing that I have two credentials for the rest of my life, to check out my phone and seeing my name as an ESPN alert, to realizing how much I disliked grass at the beginning of the grass court season to now look at where I am. There’s so many different ways I could go out it but I just think the entire experience altogether has just been a whirlwind and it’s been something that you dream about. But for me, I didn’t really know if that dream would actually come true.”
The match everything started to tilt one way midway through the fourth-set tiebreaker.
Eubanks put a forehand in a corner that drew a netted backhand from Medvedev, making it 3-all. Many in the seats rose, cheering wildly, and Eubanks shook his right fist, staring toward the support.
Maybe Eubanks enjoyed that moment just a tad too much. Maybe he let his focus slip. Then again, hard to blame a guy who came into this tournament with a career record of 2-8 at the majors and who never had won an ATP title until the week before Wimbledon began.
So close to moving on, Eubanks faltered. So close to the brink, Medvedev surged, taking four of the following five points and pushing things to a fifth set.
Medvedev smacked a forehand winner. Eubanks sailed a forehand wide. Eubanks pushed a forehand return long. After Eubanks saved one set point with a service winner, he ceded the next by flubbing a forehand volley.
Medvedev, who won 28 of the 30 points he served in that set, shook his racket. He was fully back in the match — and, it turned out, on his way to a win.
As big a server as the lanky, 6-foot-7 Eubanks is, Medvedev hit more aces, 28-17. And while Eubanks finished with more winners, 74-52, to raise his tournament total to 321 and break Andre Agassi’s 1992 mark for most winners at a single Wimbledon (since 1977), Medvedev played incredibly cleanly. He only made 13 unforced errors, 42 fewer than Eubanks.
When the match ended, when Eubanks’ wonderful ride was over, he was accompanied off toward the locker room by a loud and lengthy standing ovation — as his pal, 2022 French Open runner-up Coco Gauff, captured the scene with her phone camera.
Eubanks paused his walk. He turned to all sections of the arena to wave and then put his hands together overhead in the shape of a heart, soaking it all in.
Jabeur, Sabalenka make their way back into women’s semis
From where Ons Jabeur was sitting on Centre Court, a spot in the Wimbledon semifinals was as good as guaranteed.
The sixth-seeded Tunisian walked into the main stadium at the All England Club on Wednesday to play Elena Rybakina in a rematch of last year’s final. Jabeur lost that time, but not this time — later joking that it was possibly thanks to the seating arrangements.
“When we entered the court, felt like a similar feeling of playing (the) same match against her. But I made sure I changed seats this time. I went for the other seat that she won (from) last year,” Jabeur said. “Maybe it’s the seat that made me win today.”
Jabeur, who last year became the first woman from North Africa and first Arab woman to reach a Grand Slam final, beat the defending champion 6-7 (5), 6-4, 6-1.
She won eight of the final nine games, mixing her drop shots and slices throughout with some hard-hitting forehands and backhands.
“Last year maybe I wasn’t ready to play this kind of match,” Jabeur said. “I don’t regret last year. It happened for a reason. I always say it. It was meant to be this year. It was meant to be in the quarterfinals.”
After reaching last year’s Wimbledon final, Jabeur made it to the deciding match at the U.S. Open. In New York, she lost to Iga Swiatek.
Rybakina followed up her Wimbledon title with a first-round exit at that U.S. Open, but she then made the final at the Australian Open at the start of this year.
“Some moments I play really well, but was not consistent,” Rybakina said of Wednesday’s match. “Since physically (I) was not the greatest, then the wrong decisions came.”
For Jabeur to get back into the final, she will have to beat Australian Open champion Aryna Sabalenka. The second-seeded Belarusian advanced by beating Madison Keys 6-2, 6-4 on No. 1 Court.
That match will be second on Centre Court on Thursday, after Elina Svitolina faces Marketa Vondrousova in the other women’s semifinal match.
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