Daniil Medvedev made his way through to the semi-final of Wimbledon following an almost three-hour slogfest against American Christopher Eubanks as he defeated him 6-4 1-6 4-6 7-6 6-1.
Medvedev and Eubanks went the distance as the two squared off in an intense five-set duel in Court One.
Breaking new ground at SW19 @DaniilMedwed wins a thrilling five-set contest against Christopher Eubanks to move into his first #Wimbledon semi-final, 6-4, 1-6, 4-6, 7-6(4), 6-1 pic.twitter.com/bOt3EmPSLW— Wimbledon (@Wimbledon) July 12, 2023
Medvedev took the first set with ease. But to his unpleasant surprise, the American fought back hard with a barrage of strikes to throw the Russian and the attending crowd into a loop and clinched the next two sets respectively with absolute ease.
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 when it mattered most.
The fourth set went the entire distance as both players kept hitting the other back and forth to push it to multiple tie-breaks. But, in the end, Medvedev forced his opponent to take the match from him by playing from the baseline and clinched the set to push it to the fifth set.
Eubanks was visibly tired at this point, and Medvedev used this to his advantage as he went on to make light work of the final set, thumping the exhausted American 6-1 to win the game and advance to the semi-finals.
Overall, Christopher Eubanks thrilled the crowds with his game and his giant smile lit up Court One. But eventually, his kamikaze hitting ran aground against the immovable object of Daniil Medvedev, and his dream Wimbledon run came to a grounding halt.
The world number three’s resilience and self-belief saw him through and he will be a very stubborn opponent for Carlos Alcaraz or Holger Rune in the semi-final.
