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Christopher Eubanks recalled a piece of advice he received from compatriot John Isner after winning his opening match at the 2023 US Open.
Eubanks defeated South Korea's Kwon Soon-woo 6-3, 6-4, 0-6, 6-4 on the first day of the US Open and advanced to the second round.
During his post-match press conference, the 28th seeded American was asked what has kept him motivated during his relatively long journey to becoming a regular on the ATP Tour. Eubanks said:
"I mean, honestly, I've said this before, but I think I had a conversation with Isner some years ago in Acapulco in which I was pretty frustrated with my game, had not been progressing as quickly as I would have liked. One thing he told me, 'Bigger guys with bigger games, sometimes it just takes us longer to figure it out'."
The 27-year-old said the encouraging words from Isner helped him decipher the code to achieving success on the bigger stages in tennis.
"He reassured me, You're going to be fine, don't worry about it. I think at that time I was ranked around 180, 170, something like that. He said, Listen, big guys, big games, you got to figure out when to push the envelope a little bit, when to dial back," he said.
"I think kind of hearing those words from him, a guy who's kind of been there, granted he progressed through the challengers a lot quicker than I did, but just kind of practicing with him and hearing his input really I think gave me a little bit extra push to kind of know it's going to work out, I just got to kind of stay consistent," he added.
"It comes through a lot of trial and error" - Christopher Eubanks after reaching second round at US Open
Christopher Eubanks also stated winning matches on tour kept him motivated before his breakthrough at the 2023 Wimbledon Championships in July. Eubanks reached the quarterfinals of the grasscourt Major (his previous best performance at a Grand Slam was two second round appearances) before losing to Daniil Medvedev in five sets.
"I think my case is pretty unique because I think throughout the course of my career I had moments of which I'd shown that I can compete at tour level. I think that always served as a little bit of motivation to say, I can do it at times, I just got to figure out how to do it more consistently," he said.
The American further added that his failures helped him evolve as a tennis player.
"It came through a lot of trial and error. I think that was kind of the main thing, taking a lot of the losses and learning from them, figuring out ways to try to be better," Christopher Eubanks said.
Eubanks will next face France's Benjamin Bonzi in the second round at the US Open.
