Daniil Medvedev ended Christopher Eubanks’ dream run at Wimbledon on Wednesday, when he clawed past the American 6-4, 1-6, 4-6, 7-6(4), 6-1 to reach the semi-finals at the grass-court major for the first time.
Eubanks, who less than four months ago had not cracked the Top 100 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings, captured the attention of fans throughout the world by advancing to the quarter-finals, and was within a tie-break of blasting his way into the last four at The Championships. But Medvedev did not panic and locked down from the baseline when it mattered most to move on after two hours and 57 minutes.
“After [the] first set for sure, I didn't want to go five. When I lost the third, I wanted to go five because I had no other choice,” Medvedev said, eliciting a laugh from the crowd. “But yeah, there was a moment in the match where I completely lost the game itself and he played well. I started to sink, I started to do a lot of mistakes, not serving well enough.
“Actually, in the third set, I managed to kind of step by step start to build something and not lose, let's say 6-1 again. And then it helped me in the fourth to just be there. I had more opportunities than him unfortunately on his serve, but didn't manage to do it. But starting from the tie-break, I managed to play amazing and [I am] really happy about it.”
Hats off to both @DaniilMedwed & @chris_eubanks96 on a fantastic match! ?@Wimbledon | #Wimbledon pic.twitter.com/SiArf55rR7