Eubanks wishes men’s tennis had ‘Black male like Serena Williams who just dominated’

Christopher Eubanks, 27, suggests it would be easier for players like him if men’s tennis had “a Black male like Serena Williams who just dominated the sport.” Williams, a former 23-time Grand Slam champion, inspired a whole generation of current Black WTA players. Most notably, four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka and world No 6 Cori Gauff several times gave credit to Williams for showing them it was possible to be a very successful Black player in women’s tennis. “It gave me the ability to see that it was possible. Because it’s tough for a kid to really believe they can be something if they don’t see anyone who looks like them doing it. It’s a tough thing to get a kid to buy into, to say, ‘You can do this,’ but when you look on TV, you don’t see anyone that looks like you doing that. I think on the men’s side, we haven’t had the luxury of having a Black male like Serena who just dominated the sport. But I think now that there’s a bigger group of us now coming up, little Black boys can turn on the TV and see maybe one of our matches and say, ‘Hey, maybe I want to do that. Maybe I don’t want to play basketball. Maybe I want to give tennis a try,'” Eubanks told The Guardian.

Eubanks wishes men’s tennis had ‘a Black male like Williams’

Also in an interview with The Guardian, Eubanks revealed Jarmere Jenkins – a former tennis pro and a hitting partner of Williams – was his “first role model.” In high school, Eubanks started going to Donald Young’s tennis facility. When Eubanks was in high school in 2011, former world No 38 Young asked him if he was willing to be his occasional sparring partner on the Tour. In the next couple of years, Eubanks continued to receive help from Young. Ultimately, Eubanks accomplished his dream of becoming a tennis pro. This year, Eubanks won his first ATP title in Mallorca – made his first Grand Slam quarterfinal at Wimbledon – achieved a career-high ranking of No 29 in the world.