Christopher Eubanks’ breakthrough season hit a new height on Thursday in Spain.
The American reached his first ATP Tour semi-final by defeating French lucky loser Arthur Rinderknech 7-6(5), 7-6(4) in the last eight of the Mallorca Championships.
“My serve really came up pretty clutch when I needed it to. I was broken twice today. It was the first time I think I was broken in the tournament, so I had to kind of regroup a little bit after that,” Eubanks said in his on-court interview. “But I was able to kind of regain my composure, get back to playing the way that I can play, playing aggressive, and I think it worked out in the end.
“As far as Mallorca, I’ve been able to get a lot of support here, which has been surprising, so I really appreciate you guys for coming out. I know some of the big names have gone on to Wimbledon, but for you guys to still come out in this type of heat and humidity to support us really means a lot.”
[ATP APP]
It was Eubanks’ third tour-level quarter-final and he took advantage of his opportunity on the grass. The 27-year-old hit 10 aces and won 82 per cent of his first-serve points to move on after one hour and 58 minutes.
Eubanks is up to a career-high No. 58 in the Pepperstone ATP Live Rankings and has an opportunity to continue climbing. At the beginning of the season, he was World No. 123 and had not yet broken into the Top 100.
Next up will be South African Lloyd Harris, whom Eubanks defeated in three sets last month at a hard-court ATP Challenger Tour event in Gwangju, South Korea.
“It’s going to be fun. Lloyd and I know each other pretty well. We actually played each other a few weeks ago in Korea in the first round of a Challenger,” Eubanks said. “So I think if you had told both of us that we’d be playing in the semi-finals of a 250, we both would take it.”
Harris, a qualifier, eliminated lucky loser Pavel Kotov 7-5, 6-2. The former World No. 31 will try to reach his first ATP Tour final since Dubai in 2021.
In other action, Feliciano Lopez played his final ATP Tour match. The 41-year-old Spaniard, who turned back the clock to reach the quarter-finals, fell to in-form German Yannick Hanfmann 2-6, 4-6.
The lefty completed his career with a 506-490 tour-level record, having won more matches on grass (87) than any other Spaniard.
Hanfmann will meet Adrian Mannarino in Friday’s semi-finals after the Frenchman’s 7-5, 6-2 victory against countryman Corentin Moutet closed the day’s play in Mallorca. The lone seeded player in the quarter-finals, Mannarino broke a five-match losing streak in ATP Tour quarter-finals with the win on his 35th birthday. He is through to his first semi-final of the season and the 21st of his tour-level career.