LONDON — Christopher Eubanks, a 27-year-old American making his Wimbledon debut, reached the quarterfinals at a Grand Slam tournament for the first time by stunning two-time major runner-up Stefanos Tsitsipas 3-6, 7-6 (4), 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 in a little over three hours Monday.
Defending champion Novak Djokovic, meanwhile, was temporarily knocked off course by big-serving Hubert Hurkacz but quickly got back in the groove on Monday to reach the quarterfinals.
Having edged two tiebreaks late on Sunday before being beaten by the tournament’s strict 11 p.m. curfew, Djokovic returned to lose his first set of the tournament before sealing a 7-6 (6), 7-6 (6), 5-7, 6-4 victory.
The 43rd-ranked Eubanks, who is from Atlanta and played college tennis at Georgia Tech, is on quite a roll right now on grass courts, a surface he said he hated just a month ago. But he won his first career ATP title at a tuneup event in Mallorca, Spain, the week before Wimbledon and now added his upset of the No. 5-seeded Tsitsipas to an earlier victory over No. 12 Cameron Norrie at the All England Club.
“I feel like I’m living a dream right now. This is absolutely insane, when you paint all of the context. I’ve tried so much to block everything out and just focus on the next match — as cliché as it sounds — but … it’s surreal,” Eubanks told the crowd during an on-court interview. “It’s unbelievable. I can’t believe this.”
Eubanks will carry a nine-match winning streak into his contest against No. 3 Daniil Medvedev for a berth in the semifinals. Medvedev, of Russia, reached the quarterfinals for the first time when his fourth-round opponent, Jiri Lehecka, retired injured after losing the first two sets 6-4, 6-2. Lehecka, 21, who had played a four-hour five-set match against Tommy Paul in the last round, took a timeout after the first set while a trainer treated blisters on his right foot.
“I know I need to be at my 100% and absolute best physically, tennis-wise, and mentally to try to beat him,” said Medvedev, who won his only previous meeting against Eubanks, at the Miami Masters in March. “He is not scared to make a bad shot and still to go to the net and try to finish the point there. Definitely a little bit different from other players.”
Also on Monday, Holger Rune‘s stature in world tennis continued to grow as he stayed calm and collected in the face of adversity to ride out a 3-6, 7-6 (6). 7-6 (4), 6-3 fourth round win over Bulgaria’s Grigor Dimitrov.
The Danish sixth seed missed out on converting any of the six break points he earned in the opening set, and then found himself a set and 4-2 down after surrendering his own serve with two successive double faults. Through all that mental turmoil, he never lost belief and the 20-year-old came storming back with some phenomenal shot making as he became the first Dane in 65 years to reach the Wimbledon quarterfinals.
He will next face top seed Carlos Alcaraz, who roared into the quarterfinals with a formidable display of firepower to down big-serving Italian dark horse Matteo Berrettini on Monday.
The Spaniard was beaten to the punch in the opening set but raised his game to claim a comfortable 3-6, 6-3, 6-3, 6-3 win to the delight of the Centre Court crowd.
This is just the ninth Grand Slam tournament for Eubanks, who previously never had been past the second round at one of the sport’s most prestigious events. After questioning his ability to contend for titles, Eubanks thought about pursuing television commentary instead, and he’s worked on-air for Tennis Channel.
“I checked my phone. It’s a bit nuts right now. It’s crazy to see my social media feed that I’m just used to kind of going to [and now] seeing it’s a lot of me. I’m like, ‘What is this? This is weird,'” Eubanks said. “But I think I’ve been able to find a way to compartmentalize everything, realize this is a pretty big moment, but also saying, ‘This is a tennis match that I need to play in a couple days.'”
He closed it out with a 127-mph ace followed by a forehand winner and, after shaking hands with Tsitsipas, stood at the center of the court with his thumbs up, his arms spread wide and a smile to match.
Eubanks soaked up all of the cheers — his supporters included Coco Gauff, the American who reached the fourth round in her Wimbledon debut at age 15 in 2019 and was the runner-up at 18 at the French Open last year — and then curled his fingers to turn his hands into the shape of a heart.
Djokovic, 36, was not at his best as Hurkacz, of Poland, briefly threatened a comeback. But as he so often does, the record 23-time Grand Slam men’s champion found a solution.
He has matched Jimmy Connors for the second-most Wimbledon quarterfinals reached and will face Russia’s seventh seed Andrey Rublev on Wednesday. Remarkably, Djokovic has now reached 56 Grand Slam quarterfinals, second behind only Roger Federer.
With wind swirling around Centre Court, Djokovic struggled for his usual rhythm and dropped serve for the first time in the match to hand over the third set. The second seed looked uncomfortable for a while against the 17th seed, who ended Federer’s Wimbledon career two years ago.
But Djokovic, of Serbia, pounced to finally the break the Hurkacz serve for the first time at 3-3 in the fourth — having seen seven previous break points snatched away. From then on it was straightforward as Djokovic quickly wrapped things up in clinical fashion.
“He put up a great performance,” a relieved Djokovic said on court after keeping his bid for a fifth successive Wimbledon title and eighth in all.
“Honestly, I don’t recall the last time I felt this miserable on returning games to be honest, because of his incredibly accurate and powerful serve. I mean he’s got one of the best serves in the world and it’s so difficult to read it.”
Wimbledon has been Medvedev’s least successful Grand Slam tournament. The former world No. 1 has reached four finals, winning the US Open in 2021.
He did not play at Wimbledon last year because of the ban on Russian competitors following the country’s invasion of Ukraine.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.