Alva Review-Courier -

At the 2023 Wimbledon tennis tournament, which was played in early July, one of the most significant things that happened was the emergence of a new star who did not win a championship trophy but who went from unknown to well known before it ended.

The new tennis hero is Christopher Eubanks. I try to keep up-to-date on what is going on in professional tennis and I, like many others, had never heard his name until he made a nice “run” of four victories leaving him as one of the last eight men left in the tournament.

Eubanks is an African American from Atlanta. He attended Georgia Tech University where he excelled in his sport, attaining “All-American” status in 2016 and 2017. He left the university with a year of eligibility remaining to pursue a career as a touring pro.

He went out on the tennis circuit and entered tournaments hoping to win prize money and earn ranking points – both of which things are accomplished, of course, by winning matches.

The tennis matches we see on television are sanctioned by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for men and the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) for women. But new touring pros usually play in the sport’s minor leagues first, in tournaments conducted by the International Tennis Federation (ITF).

Competition in ITF events is not as tough as on the ATP and WTA circuits, but the prize money is miniscule compared to that in the sport’s top-tier tournaments.

Many tennis players who toil in ITF tournaments will quit the sport after a short period of time. The expense of traveling to contests, staying in hotels, eating in restaurants, and paying tournament entry fees often exceeds the money a player is able to earn.

Chris Eubanks labored on the ITF circuit for several years with some success: winning four singles titles and four doubles titles. But fame and fortune eluded him. Then, beginning with the U.S. Open in August 2022 things began to improve for him – as we will see next week.