After a solid outing in Atlanta, Christopher Eubanks made his way north to play at the 2023 Citi Open in Washington, and he started well.
The American is having the best year of his life on the ATP Tour, and it's mostly due to him finally embracing being able to play on this level. He's had some solid showings in the past, but he never quite figured things out to win consistently.
It's happening this year with a couple of signature runs through the foundations of this emergence that happened last year with a strong finish on the ATP Challenger Tour. His best showing this year was the incredible grass stretch, where he won his maiden trophy in Mallorca, following that up with an impressive showing at Wimbledon.
Now back home the American is putting forward solid performances as well. He won a couple of matches in Atlanta and now started the Citi Open in Washington with a win as well. It was a great match from Eubanks, not perfect but he did what he needed to do to win in two sets. The first set against Sho Shimabukuro saw Eubanks play the crucial rallies better.
He didn't lose a single point behind his first serve, he lost only a couple of points on his serve and he saved the only break point he faced. On return, he did enough to break the Japanese player once to take the opening set.
The second set opened with an early break for Shimabukuro though he gave it right back and that proved crucial. Had he managed to keep the break for a while longer the match could have been interesting but with the loss of serve it became only a matter of time before Eubanks turned it around.
The final score was 6-3 6-4 for Eubanks, who will either face Jordan Thompson or Adrian Mannarino in the next round.