Christopher Eubanks, the American Wimbledon quarterfinalist and former world No. 29, has appeared to announce his retirement from tennis, aged 29.
Eubanks left some wiggle room for a change of heart in a post on Instagram, but wrote that: “I was given (the) opportunity to travel around the world and form incredible relationships all while fulfilling a lifelong dream of playing professional tennis. I can’t put into words how blessed I have been. Is this absolutely the end?! Tough to say for certain but if it is, WHOOPTY DOO!!! It’s been an incredible ride.”
“If you had told this little boy from the Southside of Atlanta that he would’ve accomplished all that he did, he wouldn’t believe you,” he said.
Eubanks had only cracked the world’s top 100 a few months before he reached the last eight of Wimbledon in 2023, aged 27. Before that, he’d spent more than half a decade mostly playing on the second-tier Challenger Tour, after graduating from Georgia Tech in 2017. Standing at six feet, seven inches with a huge serve and a crisp one-handed backhand, Eubanks knocked out No. 5 seed Stefanos Tsitsipas on the way to the quarterfinals in southwest London, becoming a crowd favourite in the process.
By that point, Eubanks had already secured commentary work with the Tennis Channel, where his insights became essential to fans’ understanding of the sport. In the past couple of years he has juggled playing with media duties, becoming a regular on-court interviewer at the U.S. Open. Eubanks is particularly close with compatriots Coco Gauff, Frances Tiafoe and Ben Shelton.
During that Wimbledon run, media colleagues Pam Shriver and Paul Annacone told The Athletic how much they admired and respected Eubanks as a player and a broadcaster. Just before the tournament, Eubanks won his first and only ATP Tour event at the Mallorca Open, also a grass-court event.
As a youngster, Eubanks travelled to tournaments with Donald Young, the now-retired former world No. 38 who was based in Atlanta and whose dad ran a tennis club at which Eubanks played some events. Young said in a phone interview of Eubanks’ reputation for gregariousness that: “He’s always been that guy. We call him the Mayor because he’s the best talker. He’s just like that. A likeable guy.”
It felt as though Eubanks’ Wimbledon run could be a breakthrough moment, but results proved elusive in the years after. A first-round Wimbledon defeat when he next played at the All England Club in 2024 saw his ranking plummet from around No. 30 12 months earlier to No. 128, which meant he was essentially back to where he had started on the ATP Challenger Tour. Eubanks represented the United States at the Paris Olympics later in July 2024, but was beaten in the first round by Lebanon’s Benjamin Hassan.
He never made it back into the world’s top 100, and in 2025 won three ATP Tour-level matches, the last of which was in April.
Eubanks already has a ready-made next career in the media, and there will be plenty of players who would love to sign him up as a coach. Whatever happens next, he has already left his mark on the sport with his “incredible ride” up until now.