In 2001, 23-year-olds Mike and Bob Bryan celebrated four years as doubles pros with the first four of their record 106 ATP tour titles.
Christopher Eubanks also celebrated something big in 2001.
His fifth birthday.
Now 19, Eubanks will play with Donald Young against the Bryan brothers Saturday in the doubles semifinals of the BB&T Atlanta Open.
“It’s a dream come true. You grow up watching (the Bryans) representing us in the Davis Cup, the slams,” Eubanks said after beating Austin Krajicek and Nicholas Monroe in the quarterfinals. “When you’re playing doubles in junior tournaments, you imitate the chest bump; you do all that type of stuff. So it’s going to be really cool actually playing against them. I can’t wait to get out there and show what I can do.”
Eubanks, an Atlanta native, earned the college wild card for this year’s Atlanta Open. He lost to No. 144 Radek Stepanek 6-2, 6-2 in his first singles match.
As a freshman last year at Georgia Tech, Eubanks climbed to No. 53 in the country and led Tech to its first NCAA team championship appearance since 2011. He also got an at-large bid to the NCAA singles championship, where he won his first match.
“This is a once-in-a-lifetime chance (and) millions of people would give anything to be able to play in this tournament (and) be in the semis of doubles,” Eubanks said. “So I’m just taking it and running with it as best as I can.”
Martin Blackman, the USTA general manager of player development, said the future of American tennis relies in part on developing college players like Eubanks.
“There’s no other country in the world that has the opportunity of pursuing and developing in your sport and getting a great education at the same time,” Blackman said. “So, I think even though our focus is developing world-class players, pro players, that pathway of trying to play college tennis is what we’re promoting at the youngest age. And then when players get to be 15, 16, 17, then it becomes pretty apparent as to whether they have that potential, whether they’re on track to become a pro.”
There’s definitely meat to an argument against playing college tennis.
At No. 15, Kevin Anderson is the highest-ranked man who played in college, and Andre Agassi, Pete Sampras and Jim Courier all turned pro before college.
But Andy Roddick, John McEnroe and Jimmy Connors went to college. The Bryan brothers played tennis at Stanford. John Isner, who’s playing in Atlanta Open’s singles semifinals Saturday, attended Georgia and has been vocal about how much he developed in college.
“(We have to) work more closely with our best college programs on the men’s and women’s side to bring college back into being a more viable pathway (to professional tennis),” Blackman said. “… Make sure the training is right so that when they gradate or come out after two or three years they’re ready to become a great pro.”
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