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Game of aces helps Eubanks reach all-American Newport SFs

  • Posted: Jul 19, 2024

Who doesn’t love a game of aces?

After pitching a shutout at 3-all in the third set against Australian Aleksandar Vukic, Christopher Eubanks held on for a tight 6-2, 4-6, 7-6(3) win Friday at the Infosys Hall of Fame Open to advance to his first tour-level semi-final since he won his maiden title on grass in Mallorca last year.

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“You step to the line, the first one goes in, you have a good rhythm,” the American said in his on-court interview at the grass-court ATP 250 in Newport. “The second one goes in and the mind starts to wonder, ‘Oh, can I do it again?’

“You pump the third one and then all of a sudden the crowd starts to get behind you. I knew I was going for two first serves on that 40/0 point. Luckily I made the first one and I gave the crowd a little fist pump.”

The former Top 30 player has fallen to No. 128 in the PIF ATP Rankings after recently dropping points from Mallorca and from his quarter-final run at Wimbledon last year. He is 8-15 on the season.

Eubanks, who hit 13 aces and seven double faults according to Infosys ATP Stats, saved six of eight break points he faced. The 28-year-old has climbed to No. 105 in the PIF ATP Live Rankings, and will re-enter the Top 100 should he advance to the final.

Eubanks on Saturday will face his Olympics teammate, second-seeded Marcos Giron, who defeated Australian Alex Bolt 6-4, 6-1 to set an all-American semi-final line-up in Newport for the first time since 1985 (Gullikson, Pate, Sadri and Mayotte).

Playing in front of mentor Andre Agassi, who is in town for this weekend’s Hall of Fame induction ceremony, Giron saved all three break points he faced to move into his seventh semi-final (2-4 record) and third this year (Dallas and Delray Beach).

“Four Americans in the semi-finals is something we love to see, I’m pumped that we’re here,” Giron said. “I’ve known Chris for a long time so it’s great to see him stepping up this week and playing really well and I’m really proud to be teammates with him the next couple of weeks.”

Giron, now 18-17 on the season, moved back to his career-high mark of No. 44 in the PIF ATP Live Rankings after defeating Bolt in a first-time Lexus ATP Head2Head meeting.

In Saturday’s other semi-final, #NextGenATP star Alex Michelsen will take on big-serving Reilly Opelka, who has struck form this week after an extended layoff due to injury.

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Zverev tops Zhang in Hamburg for season-leading 43rd win

  • Posted: Jul 19, 2024

Alexander Zverev’s mission to win back-to-back titles in his hometown continued apace on Friday evening at the Hamburg Open.

The top seed and defending champion eased past Zhang Zhizhen 6-4, 6-3 to reach the semi-finals for the fourth time at the clay-court ATP 500. With his 66-minute triumph, his 43rd of the season, Zverev moved clear of World No. 1 Jannik Sinner for the most tour-level wins in 2024.

Zverev powered 22 winners, including 10 aces, according to Infosys ATP Stats, in a dominant victory against the eighth-seeded Zhang. The manner of victory for the No. 4 in the PIF ATP Rankings was in stark contrast to his three-set battle against Hugo Gaston on Thursday evening, when he appeared to struggle with a knee injury he sustained earlier this month at Wimbledon.

“I’m extremely pleased with the level of tennis today,” said Zverev in his post-match interview. “I think it was a big step up from yesterday, but obviously a very different match as well. I’m happy to be in the semi-finals, but I don’t want to stop here, I want to continue and hopefully defend my title here in Hamburg.”

Zverev has this year reached the final at Roland Garros, the semi-finals at the Australian Open and won an ATP Masters 1000 crown in Rome. Later this month, he will begin his defence of his Olympic crown at Paris 2024. The 27-year-old was asked how his season so far has compared to 2021, when he finished the year with 59 tour-level wins and won six titles.

“2021 was strange, because I started the season OK, I was playing well, but then the second half of the season, I barely lost a match,” he recalled. “So I hope if it goes like that this year, especially with the Olympics and especially with the US Open, I’ll be the happiest person on the planet. We’ll see how it goes. I’m satisfied with the level of tennis I’m playing right now, but it takes a lot of hard work to continue on this path and on this journey.”

The next assignment for Zverev in his Hamburg title defence is a last-four clash against Pedro Martinez. The Spaniard rallied past fourth seed Francisco Cerundolo 1-6, 6-1, 6-4 to reach his first ATP 500 semi-final.

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In the bottom half of the draw, third seed Sebastian Baez and fifth seed Arthur Fils will play their maiden Lexus ATP Head2Head clash for a spot in the championship match. Baez pulled through for a 2-6, 6-4, 6-4 victory against Luciano Darderi . He has now won a Tour-leading 23 matches on clay this year.

Fils was leading Holger Rune 6-4, 4-1 when the second-seeded Dane was forced to retire from the pair’s quarter-final clash due to a right knee injury. The #NextGenATP Frenchman Fils, who also reached the last four last year, is up three spots to a career-high No. 25 in the PIF ATP Live Rankings as a result of his Hamburg run so far. Should he win the title in Germany, he would crack the Top 20 in the PIF ATP Rankings for the first time on Monday.

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Krajicek/Ram dominate on serve, book Hamburg SF spot

  • Posted: Jul 19, 2024

The top two seeds at the Hamburg Open advanced to the semi-finals Friday following convincing victories. Americans Austin Krajicek and Rajeev Ram raced past Italians Flavio Cobolli and Luciano Darderi 6-4, 6-4 while second seeds Kevin Krawietz and Tim Puetz beat Sander Gille and Joran Vliegen 7-5, 6-2.

Krajicek and Ram, teaming for the second time this year at an ATP Tour event, dropped just three points behind their first serves and did not face a break point, according to Infosys ATP Stats. Up next for the top seeds at the clay ATP 500 is a semi-final clash against third seeds Fabien Reboul and Edouard Roger-Vasselin.

Defending champions Krawietz and Puetz also produced a dominant serving performance, winning 85 per cent (40/47) of their service points. It will be an all-German semi-final as Krawietz and Puetz face Jakob Schnaitter and Mark Wallner or Constantin Frantzen and Hendrik Jebens.

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Bhambri/Olivetti win in Gstaad, continue quest for second title
Third seeds Yuki Bhambri and Albano Olivetti earned a 6-3, 7-6(4) victory against fifth seeds Sander Arends and Robin Haase to reach the EFG Swiss Open Gstaad final.

The Indian-French team is into its third tour-level final of the season, having won the Munich title and finished runner-up in Lyon. Bhambri and Olivetti will face eighth seeds Andre Begemann and Victor Cornea or Ugo Humbert and Fabrice Martin in the championship match.

<img src=”/-/media/images/news/2024/07/19/17/04/bhambri-olivetti-gstaad-2024-friday.jpg?w=100%25&hash=B91D658F92823C4AC6E02D0CADF76577″ style=”width:100%;” alt=”Yuki Bhambri (at net) and Albano Olivetti during Friday’s Gstaad action.” />

Yuki Bhambri (at net) and Albano Olivetti during Friday’s Gstaad action. Credit: Fabian Meierhans / EFG Swiss Open Gstaad 2024

Sixth seeds Goransson/Verbeek oust home favourites in Newport QFs
Andre Goransson and Sem Verbeek spoiled the hopes of home favourites Mackenzie McDonald and Alex Michelsen at the Infosys Hall of Fame Open with a 7-5, 6-4 win against the Americans.

“It’s really nice. Regardless of who you play, it’s always nice to get to the semis of a 250,” said Verbeek after the quarter-final win. “Whether it’s singles or doubles, they’re always going to be great tennis players at this level. You just have to be focused on what you need to do well, and I think we did a good job of that today. Pleased with the win.”

“I agree. I’m focused more on our performance,” concurred Goransson. “I thought we did a lot of good things today, especially mentally, staying resilient and focused on the task. I’m very proud of that.”

Into the semi-finals, the sixth-seeded Swedish-Dutch duo will next meet Australians Luke Saville and Aleksandar Vukic.

<img src=”/-/media/images/news/2024/07/19/17/16/verbeek-goransson-newport-2024-friday.jpg” style=”width:100%;” alt=”Sem Verbeek (left) and Andre Goransson at the grass ATP 250 in Newport.” />

Sem Verbeek (left) and Andre Goransson at the grass ATP 250 in Newport. Credit: Andrew Eichenholz/ATP Tour

Guinard/Jacq reach Bastad final
Frenchmen Manuel Guinard and Gregoire Jacq are turning their ATP Challenger Tour success into a dream run at the Nordea Open, where they upset top seeds Gonzalo Escobar and Aleksandr Nedovyesov 6-3, 6-4 to reach their first tour-level final.

Guinard and Jacq, who have won four ATP Challenger Tour doubles titles this season, including last week in Salzburg, await third seeds Orlando Luz and Rafael Matos or singles superstars Rafael Nadal and Casper Ruud in the Bastad title match.

What to know about the 2024 ATP Doubles Trial implemented this week in Hamburg, Gstaad and Newport

  • Singles versus doubles team matches in the first round whenever possible by increasing the number of doubles seeded teams to 8 (up from 4)
  • 21 seconds between all points
  • 60-second changeovers with a time call after 40 seconds. Points should start at the 60-second mark at the latest
  • Free crowd movement
  • Doubles-only court (when possible)
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4-hour workout! Nadal grinds down Navone in Bastad QF marathon

  • Posted: Jul 19, 2024

Rafael Nadal passed a stern physical test from Mariano Navone with the help of some trademark mental strength on Friday at the Nordea Open in Bastad.

The former No. 1 in the PIF ATP Rankings battled to a 6-7(2), 7-5, 7-5 triumph against Navone in an absorbing four-hour quarter-final at the clay-court ATP 250. Nadal struggled to maintain his best level for long periods in the match but dug in superbly after letting slip a 5-2 lead in the deciding set to reach his first tour-level semi-final since Wimbledon 2022.

“I lost for some moments my concentration, but I was able to hold physically until the end,” said Nadal in his on-court interview. “That is so important for me. Let’s see how I am tomorrow, but today I am alive and in the semi-finals, so that’s very important.”

Nadal and Navone played out three topsy-turvy sets, all of which lasted more than an hour, in their maiden Lexus ATP Head2Head meeting. In the first, Nadal rallied from a double-break down at 1-4 to force a tie-break, which Navone composed himself to clinch in style. In the second, it was Navone’s turn to recover a double-break deficit from 0-3, but he was unable to stop Nadal from clinching his third, decisive break of the set in the 11th game.

The World No. 36 Navone appeared to have taken control again early in the third set, when he broke Nadal’s serve in the second game for a 2-0 lead. Then came the Nadal charge, as the 92-time tour-level champion reeled off five straight games, before Navone again recovered from a double break down to level at 5-5. Finally, after notching his 10th break of Navone’s serve in the match in the 11th game of the decider, Nadal held firm behind his delivery to snatch his 10th tour-level victory of 2024.

“There were a lot of changing dynamics in every single set,” said Nadal. “For moments, he was in control. For moments, I was in control. But at the end, no one was in control! That’s true, and I had a good chance in the second with 3-0. Then I was very close to losing the match in the second set.

“In the third [I was ahead] again with 5-2, but he’s a great fighter and he played a great match. I wish him all the very best for the rest of the season.”

Nadal is this week competing in his first tour-level event since his first-round defeat to Alexander Zverev at Roland Garros in May. The 38-year-old is now on an eight-match winning streak in Bastad, where he won the title on his previous appearance in 2005. He will take on Duje Ajdukovic in the semi-finals after the Croatian qualifier downed Thiago Monteiro 6-2, 4-6, 6-4.

More to follow…

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Down The T: Sharky's rapid-fire grilling of Carlos Alcaraz

  • Posted: Jul 19, 2024

Who does Carlos Alcaraz think is the nicest guy on the ATP Tour? What about the funniest player in the locker room or who would be the Spaniard’s wingman on a night out?

The four-time major champion answered the same player for all three of those questions, and a fourth one, in social media influencer Sharky’s rapid fire Q&A with the 21-year-old. Can you guess which star Alcaraz was thinking of?

Watch the full exchange of this episode of Down The T below to learn Alcaraz’s go-to song before a match, his favourite social media account and his thoughts on the fan favourite ‘GOAT’ debate.

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Tsitsipas reaches Gstaad SFs, next faces Berrettini

  • Posted: Jul 19, 2024

Stefanos Tsitsipas extended his perfect Lexus ATP Head2Head record against Fabio Fognini to 5-0 on Friday at the EFG Swiss Open Gstaad, where the Greek cruised to a 6-4, 6-3 victory to reach the semi-finals.

The top seed stayed dialled in despite relinquishing an early break in both sets, quickly rebounding with aggressive baseline play to rush Fognini’s groundstrokes. Tsitsipas earned a decisive break at 5-4 in the opening set and raced to the finish line in the second, advancing after one hour, six minutes.

“My returns worked pretty well, I was very consistent with them. I kind of insisted the whole match to stay back and give it a bit of a loop, try and get the angles from the very beginning. It worked pretty well,” said Tsitsipas, who won 74 per cent of his first-serve points, according to Infosys ATP Stats.

“I’m happy with how I started serving towards the end of the match. In the beginning, I was still trying to figure out how I’m going to open up the court and create opportunities on my serve. It took me a while to figure out. I kind of unlocked the code towards the end… I felt like I was doing everything correct.”

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An 11-time tour-level titlist, who is now 32-12 on the year, Tsitsipas is aiming for his second trophy of the season. The 25-year-old, who is competing in Gstaad for the first time, won his third Monte-Carlo title in April. Into the semi-finals, the World No. 12 in the PIF ATP Rankings looks to improve upon his 14-1 record against Italians on clay when he faces sixth seed Matteo Berrettini, whom Tsitsipas leads 3-0 in their Lexus ATP Head2Head series.

Berrettini, 2018 champion in Gstaad, earned a hard-fought 7-6(7), 7-6(2) victory against third seed Felix Auger-Aliassime. Neither player dropped serve, but it was the 28-year-old Berrettini who held his nerve in the latter stages of both sets, converting his third set point of the opener to gain an advantage. The former World No. 6 jumped to a 5/0 lead in the second-set tie-break and closed the match after two hours, 10 minutes.

In the bottom half of the draw, fifth seed Jan-Lennard Struff advanced to his second tour-level semi-final of the season (Munich title) after overcoming fourth seed Tomas Martin Etcheverry 7-5, 3-6, 6-3. The German next faces Quentin Halys, who ousted fellow qualifier Gustavo Heide 6-1, 7-5. Halys, 27, is into his second tour-level semi-final (2023 Estoril) after downing Heide with the help of a remarkable point-winning forehand from the floor midway through the opening set.

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All In a Vijay Day: Filming with snakes, James Bond & Wimbledon 5-setter

  • Posted: Jul 19, 2024

Many tennis players have done cool things like meeting royal families, hanging out with global celebrities and spending time with the best athletes in the world. But it is unlikely another ATP Tour star will join Vijay Amritraj as an actor in a James Bond film.

Amritraj, who on Saturday will be inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame, played Vijay in the 1983 film Octopussy starring Roger Moore.

“I think I said yes to the audition, because [producer] ‘Cubby’ [Albert Broccoli] and [his daughter] Barbara asked me at Wimbledon. I said I’d do it only because who could say they played at Wimbledon in the afternoon and worked at Pinewood in the morning? I don’t think anyone has ever done that and I don’t know if anyone will,” Amritraj told ATPTour.com. “So that was kind of an off-the-cuff reason I said yes. And strangely, I did audition with James Brolin from the fantastic series called Hotel way back when, which he was a star in. And so they flew him in from London to do the screen test with me at Pinewood.

“It was awesome, because it’s exactly the same scene, the crew created the entire set accordingly.”

The scene was set to include snakes. Director John Glen asked Amritraj, “How long will it take for you to get used to the snake?”

Amritraj replied: “Listen, I do not want to meet the snakes ’til the day of the shoot. So forget about giving me a week’s time to get used to the snakes.”

When it came time for Amritraj’s moment of truth with the snakes, the Indian legend asked the snake charmer, “So you’ve taken out all the poison from this snake?”

The snake charmer replied: “Yeah, most of it”.

Amritraj was stunned. The charmer told him they always left a little bit of the venom in the snake. In disbelief, he asked a simple question. “Why would you do that?”

“He handed it over to someone else. And he said, ‘Well, if you take out all the poison the snake dies, so you need to have some poison. You just have to be careful.’ I said, ‘Seriously?’” Amritraj said. “And the next thing I know I’m carrying this basket around with the snake looking right at me from here. It was one of those classic moments of adrenaline like at 30/40, 5-4.”

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Glen, who passed along his congratulations to a man he called his “dear friend”, recalled that moment.

“Vijay was cast in the James Bond film ‘Octopussy’ to play Bond’s aide in Udaipur, India,” Glen told ATPTour.com. “On his initial interview at Pinewood Studios, Vijay admitted to his fear of snakes so I arranged for a snake handler to attend the meeting complete with pythons. We were assured that the pythons had been milked of their venom prior to their being handled. I don’t think Vijay was totally convinced. However, like the terrific professional that he is, he overcame his natural instincts and got on with playing the role of snake charmer.”

In a classic scene in the film, Amritraj drove a tuk-tuk with Bond (Moore) in the back. It was a busy area and the villains were after them. Vijay at one point took some swipes at the bad guys with his tennis racquet.

“It took three days to film that one minute or two-minute scene and [there were] accidents galore,” Amritraj recalled. “There were 2,500 extras all over the place. And I’m driving in a souped-up tuk-tuk, and there was another one by the side of me. And then there was a policeman in the middle. And then there were two of them with cameras going in the front. I don’t know how we didn’t die, basically.”

Glen said: “Later when we came to film the scene in Udaipur, the snakes decided they didn’t like the heat produced by our arc lights and decided to make a run for it. Vijay’s fear of snakes evaporated and he joined in with us all grabbing the reptiles and placing them back in the basket as fast as they left… A true pro!”

<img src=”/-/media/images/news/2024/07/19/14/21/amritraj-wimbledon-1982.jpg” style=”width:100%;” alt=”Vijay Amritraj competing at Wimbledon in 1982.” />
Vijay Amritraj competing at Wimbledon in 1982. Photo: Getty Images.
According to Amritraj, the production team asked him to take on the role in 1981, he filmed it in 1982 and the movie was released in 1983. He said he filmed once in the morning during Wimbledon and played Roscoe Tanner in the afternoon at The Championships. Amritraj lost the match in five sets.

“I think the really amazing part of it was, after I signed on for the picture, which was going to be shot in 1982, I think I was to do 14 weeks on the picture. But 14 weeks, I said, ‘Listen, I’m on Tour here, I’m flying all over the world, so you’re going to have to give me time off in between’. But in movies, they cannot do that, because insurance doesn’t cover you when you leave the site,” Amritraj said. “They made a special exemption with me. And I would work for two weeks and went off and played three tournaments and came back and did two weeks and then went off for two more tournaments.

“It was one of those things that is very, very hard for them to do, [but] they did. The fun part was when the movie was going to come out in the summer of ’83 and they had the major premiere, held in Leicester Square in London and with the Royal Premiere with Princess Diana and Prince Charles. We were going to be introduced to them obviously, prior to the movie, and every tennis player wanted to get to that film.”

Amritraj recalls that many of his peers attended, including John McEnroe. The premiere was the week before Wimbledon began and there was a “huge, huge response” to the film. There were massive crowds of fans at the premiere, which helped build the excitement.

“When that moment came in the movie when I died, a guy jumped up from the back of the row in the cinema and said, ‘I’m in! I’m in!’” Amritraj remembered. “He was a lucky loser in the qualifying and he thought I died so he was going to get into the tournament.”

The player was Bruce Kleege, who had lost in the third round of qualifying. Kleege did not receive a lucky loser spot because Amritraj “died”, but he received a lucky loser spot because of another player’s withdrawal.

“When I died in the movie he just jumped up in the theater. He was besides himself that he was going to get into the tournament. All the tennis players got the joke, except everyone else in the cinema [did not],” Amritraj said. “That movie was special from a variety of fronts, because for the first time Eon Productions, the production house of the big picture, I was playing with a Donnay racquet and they created this incredible Donnay poster with all my scenes with Roger Moore inside the Donnay poster. There were lots of incredible firsts for it.”

As Amritraj discussed the film, he smiled from ear to ear thinking back to his days as an acting star more than 40 years ago. It was a special year — not only did Vijay star in a James Bond film, but his son, Prakash Amritraj, was born later that year.

“I can never forget what I learned from it and how much I enjoyed being part of it,” Amritraj said. “Roger was such a magnificent man. He was one of the nicest guys you could ever meet.”

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With 'dark clouds' gone, Eubanks eyes late-season surge

  • Posted: Jul 19, 2024

After losing in the first round of Wimbledon, Christopher Eubanks’s PIF ATP Ranking fell from No. 62 to No. 128 on Monday. But just two days later, the American had a big smile on his face at the Infosys Hall of Fame Open after reaching the quarter-finals of the grass-court event with a win against #NextGenATP American Ethan Quinn.

“It’s been a while. For sure it’s been a while since I had that feeling of putting together a good quality win and definitely it’s been even longer since being in a quarter-final,” Eubanks told ATPTour.com. “So it feels good to finally be able to kind of piece together a match that maybe I didn’t play my best for the entirety of the match. But I was able to put it together and just continue to compete.

“If you haven’t been winning, it feels as though a lot of things constantly go against you. Today kind of felt good to be able to kind of come up with the goods when I needed it. And to end the match with the win was pretty big.”

A year ago, Eubanks was enjoying the biggest high of his career. After a tremendous start to 2023 in which he made his first ATP Masters 1000 quarter-final in Miami, claimed his maiden ATP Tour title in Mallorca and reached his first major quarter-final at Wimbledon, he proved he could compete with the very best players in the world.

At the start of 2023, Eubanks had never cracked the world’s Top 100. By the end of July he reached a career-high World No. 29 and was receiving massive international attention.

But after reaching last year’s Atlanta quarter-finals, Eubanks did not win consecutive matches again until Halle last month.

“It’s pretty difficult, that’s for sure. It’s definitely not easy to try to look at the positive side when things aren’t going your way,” Eubanks said. “But I think [it is about] understanding that this is just part of the Tour, it’s not something that’s super specific to me. There are tonnes of players who maybe, throughout the course of their career, have different ebbs and flows, of winning and losing.”

Watch Highlights: Eubanks’ R2 Newport Win

In the moment, it was easy for Eubanks to think he was the only one this was happening to. But many players have ups and downs.

“Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. When you’re winning a lot, you don’t think much about it. When you’re not winning a lot, it certainly feels like the weight of the world can be on your shoulders,” Eubanks said. “But I think putting things in perspective this past week, and just understanding, ‘Hey, this happens to everybody on Tour at some point’. It’s just continuing to control what I can control, which is just the effort I put on the practice court, the effort I put in the matches.

“Continuing to fight and just fighting in matches is probably the hardest thing to do when you’re not playing well, you’re not winning. But that’s the only thing I can control. If I continue to fight, I continue to put myself in those situations, hopefully, eventually, the hard work will pay off and good things will happen.”

In Halle, Eubanks had “a really cool” conversation with Nuno Borges, who last year won the Phoenix ATP Challenger Tour event before enduring an extended patch of tough results. The Portuguese player felt like he was a much better player than he was when he triumphed in Arizona, but the wins were not coming.

Borges kept working hard, made the fourth round of this year’s Australian Open and successfully defended his Phoenix crown.

“When I heard that from him, it made me feel a lot better, because I feel the same way,” Eubanks said. “I feel like I’m a better player than I was a year ago, but I’m just not putting together wins.”

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For much of Eubanks’ career, if things were not going great, he was able to drop down to the ATP Challenger Tour to try to string together wins and regain his confidence. It was tougher to do that as a Top 30 player in the world. Just three weeks ago, he was World No. 42.

But in a way, losing in straight sets in the first round of Wimbledon to Quentin Halys was a burden removed from Eubanks’ shoulders. There are no more thoughts about a huge chunk of points to defend in the future.

“I will say after Wimbledon, it did feel like, ‘Oh, wow, I don’t have to worry about those two weeks hanging over my head’. Because after Wimbledon last year, you play the US Open and I put together I think one win in Shanghai but didn’t win that many matches after that. You don’t really think that much about it,” Eubanks said. “But then the beginning of this year started, I got a good win in Australia and then not many wins after that. You realise, ‘Oh no, clay-court season is coming’, and then it’s like that dark cloud of what comes after the clay-court season is obviously the grass, which was big for me.

“It definitely feels like a bit of a weight is off my shoulders, I can just kind of focus on playing tennis now and to find the form that kind of got me that success that I found last year.”

Last month the 28-year-old served for a place in the Halle semi-finals against Zhang Zhizhen. On one hand, that was a big opportunity to earn plenty of points at an ATP 500 event. But despite the disappointment, it was a positive sign that Eubanks put himself in that position against the top player.

Eubanks already has an opportunity to make a move this week in Newport, where he is trying to claim his first title of the season.

“There’s a lot of ground to make up, which is the exciting part for me. Now having whatever feels like a dark cloud off, that weight off my shoulders, now I can just find my form and just play my way,” Eubanks said. “At least I have an opportunity to play my way into good form. I think that the future’s looking bright if I had to kind of put it into words.

“I’m really excited about what these next few months, the remaining part of the year holds for me. I truly believe that I can find some of that form I found last year to kind of get myself back to where I know I can be. At the end of the day I’ve just got to continue to put in the work and just trust it’s going to happen.”

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