For the first time,
the city of Atlanta will have
its name on both baselines and
seen around the world as the
Atlanta Open begins this weekend
at Atlantic Station and the stars
are out for the official court
christening on Friday morning as
Hawks assistant General manager Kyle
Korver played alongside Georgia
Tech great Christopher Eubanks,
who's coming fresh off a Wimbledon
quarterfinals appearance.
Definitely been a lot different,
a little bit more adjusting to
to life back home, like I said.
So I was called for about 3 months
and I came back and you know.
The ATP title and I guess that
quarter final wasn't really on
my my checklist on when I left.
So it's been fun, like I said,
trying to get acclimated again.
It's been taking me a few days,
but I think now I'm kind of settling
into my routines again and ready to
just kind of treat this like you
know another tournament and try to
keep my best with moving forward.
I think I look at myself as like when
I'm going into grand Slams now I'm.
I think maybe expecting a little bit
more of myself where I know what my
capabilities are and what I can do.
So I think it just kind of changes my
outlook going into even tournaments
like this in 18250 for my Orca probably
wouldn't enter 250 like you know,
really feel like I can win it and
now I gotta show myself that I can.
So these these are more of a
mental adjustment for our.
So
yeah, no, I I I genuinely didn't.
They didn't. I think understand
it or they didn't believe it.
I had some friends who tried to tell
me who came over from quarter final.
They say you don't understand man,
you're you're all over the news in Atlanta.
I'm like come on guys, maybe the sports.
I'm like second on the sports
section like there's no way.
And then just coming back and being
here and going to some of the my
favorite restaurants and and places
I always told people to come up,
made it a point to say congratulations
it was fun watching the running one
with them and I'm just like man,
you guys really did Atlanta really you know.
They really paid attention.
They really enjoyed following.
And it makes it.
I think now I mean even more that it
wasn't just the tennis community in Atlanta,
it was Atlanta as a whole.
I always say I think I was very,
very lucky,
very fortunate that I grew up in the
city that I did in the time that I did,
because there were so many other really
good tennis players who came first and
kind of paved the way for me and then
kind of took me under their wings.
From Jamir Jenkins to Don
Young to Jamir's older brother,
Jermaine pushed me for a while.
I had an older cousin,
Trey youth in Michigan State, so.
I was really lucky to be in the city
at the time because those guys had
already either were in the midst
of their legion or professional
career or coaching afterwards.
And they kind of could show me
that the tips of the trade,
I think to kind of help my progression
move along a little bit quicker.
Well, especially in juniors,
I think it took a little bit of
time after officially turning coding
kind of finally make my mark.
But I I I owe.
Those guys a lot,
just because I'm seeing them come first,
show me that it was actually possible
you could do it from the city of Atlanta.
You could be a pretty good professional.
So I I think, you know,
my roots are a huge, huge part in it.
And even going to Georgia Tech
and playing for Kenny Thorn,
who also was a professional
who also went to Georgia Tech.
So he,
I walked literally right behind in
his bath and he showed me that again,
it is possible to do so.
I was, I always say I think I was very,
very lucky.
I was very,
very fortunate to be surrounded
by the people I was surrounded
by and I was eternal great.
I'm just opening up a tennis
court rank among your career comp,
exciting for me right now.
I'll say that tennis has been kind of a new,
a new hobby pleasure for me
in the last couple years.
And so I came last year.
I come before and watched it.
It's funny to come out here and hit Chris.
I hit him last year at Georgia Tech one time.
So just to, you know. Do that again.
It's just a cool experience.
I would not have thought this a few
years ago that I'd be on a tennis court.
So it's fun.
Come on, man, big deal.
We were just downloading about like how
life has changed for him a little bit
in the last the last short little while.
But he's got a, you know,
he's just a great game and he's got,
he's working it all out.
He loves his craft,
loves his game and decided to watch some
good synergies between NBA and tennis.
Yeah, Jimmy Baller is all into it.
Yeah,
yeah.
You know, I think it's an important sport.
I think so much of what we're really
understanding and trying to teach in
basketball now is it's always been a thing.
But I think that as you watch the
Jimmy Butlers of the world who just
like they get into the paint and
their footwork is just impeccable and
you see the advantages you can have.
Like tennis is one of those sports that
you have to have the right footwork,
as you've been for your volleys,
you've been for your shots.
Like footwork is important in
every single sport, obviously,
But I think now that playing tennis
like you know for a couple years,
it gives you new thoughts to like
basketball footwork and how you teach
things and what's important and.
So there's some, there's a,
there's some great carry over.
Why is it so important?
Because obviously the name
of the event of the Atlanta,
why was it important to have
the name seen even though you
know the name of the event?
Why was it important to
have it seen in everybody?
You know, tennis goes around and
our event goes to over country,
dating countries around the
world and for 50 hours on TV.
And when you look at it, you know,
yes, you see it land open there,
but you don't really know where you're
playing and we're allowed to now
put that on the court. So we said.
We want everybody when they TuneIn,
from wherever they are, Australia,
New York, watching on the Tennis Channel,
if they're in London,
England or wherever it may be,
they know that that event
is happening in Atlanta.
But you know, one of the best
tennis cities in the entire country.
What's it like to have a guy
go straight from the Wimbledon
quarterfinals to the world tournament?
It's great.
You know, look, Chris is is a tremendous guy.
It's created a lot of excitement,
which we're excited for,
a local guy, Georgia Tech guy.
There's there's nothing better for
us than having that sort of a a
connection with with those sort of players.
You know, last year we're lucky enough,
big curious,
went from from Wimbledon to us,
couldn't play single to play dubs.
But having a local guy that's
even more special.
I think we've had more of media
requests than we've ever had this year.
Yeah, I'm looking forward to it.
It's my second ATP event.
I'm getting to play.
I know Trent's played here before.
Getting to be so close to
my new home in of Athens,
to be really special,
getting to see our college coaches come.
A few of the Georgia,
our teammates are going to be here,
So I'm looking forward to getting
play in front of this home crowd.
Talk about what the We talk about
what the months have been like for
Christmas. Last months been like
for you, it's been really hectic.
Still taking classes at UGA,
so it's been taking up a lot of my free time.
But as I'm playing tournaments,
just trying to focus on the match at hand.
Obviously there's been a lot more.
I guess we'd say my stock
is up a little bit more,
so I've just been a little bit
busy trying to handle which
tournaments I'm going to go into.
I'm trying to prepare and get
ready for the Open and hopefully
be ready for A5 set match.
Yeah, what's it mean to get the chance to go?
It's incredible. I've been there
before for juniors, not quality.
So this is kind of going up
through the levels of U.S. Open.
Finally getting to the highest
level of tennis is something
I've always jumped up and now
I get to get to make that true.
We got a teammate here.
Big John is going to be a lot of barking
and whooping in this place, right?
Absolutely. I mean,
those guys have been a lot of
been great mentors for me.
John, especially Trent especially
tries to help me out.
He, he was my roommate through our
travel travels this year as a team.
So he's helped me out through some dark,
dark periods, but also through the
successes of winning in sale place.
He's there beside me the entire
time and I'm really appreciative,
appreciative of trying to being
there for me through everything.
Chris is a good example.
It's just kind of how hard it is
to sometimes make that breakthrough
and just how small the margins are
sometimes between you know 200 and.
50 or whatever. Like as you sort
of start out on that journey,
how do you, what kind of pressure
do you put on yourself to,
you know, either go fast or slow?
How do you, how do you view that?
You know, I've started to
kind of view it as everyone's
on their own timeline.
If I put pressure on me trying to get
to the top level as quick as I can,
then I won't be doing the things
correctly that I need to.
If I gets treatment, getting stronger,
having those off weeks that
you really honestly need,
I mean I'm 19 years old,
I mean playing against grown men.
So obviously I need a little bit of time,
time to get stronger.
So as long as I'm recognizing
that my timeline might be
different than someone else's,
then I'll be able to perform
at my highest level.
Question for both of you guys.
What is it about this event
that's maybe a little more
unique than other places?
Why is this one kind of a special spot?
Yeah, I'll say, you know, especially for me,
I've been at this event a couple
years and this is actually the only
ATP event that I've been a part of.
And just drawing that home crowd,
especially for me is something something
really special and I'm really excited
to be able to do that again this year.
There's nothing to nothing
to say about this guy.
No, no he's he's he's one of my best
friends and and being able to to
see all his successes recently has
been been something that you know
has been really special to see and
and I'm really excited to what he
to see what he's going to do in the
future and I'm really excited to be
playing with him this week and you
know we've made a lot of memories
together and I'm really excited to
make more with him at this time.