Eubanks has had an interesting path to say the least. It does help a lot to be 6'8"+ as if you can hold serve, you can win tennis matches.
I've been fortunate to know Chris through mutual friends and this one story stands out: I asked him when did he realize he might be able to play tennis for a living. He replied to the effect of: I didn't think I was good enough to play in college until this college coach (HC of a top 5 program) watched him at Southern closed after my junior year and offered him a spot on his team. Chris wound up going to GT as it was close to home as well as being free.
Additionally, both Shelton and Wolf attended regular high school. I believe Wolf played one year of HS tennis (lost his state tournament as a freshman) while Shelton won his state tournament as a sophomore.
Wolf played soccer and tennis at Cincinnati Country Day which was private. There's a great podcast with his parents about his tennis journey.
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podca...lf-parents-of-jj/id1355445404?i=1000421367697
Looking more at Eubanks' background, he was a southern USTA player, not a national player playing mostly in GA with a few tourneys in SC and NC. Only played Kzoo and Nat Teams once before his sr year-no Nat Clays, no prior national events except a regional in Norcross GA. Ironically, he played in the Qualis of the Atlanta 250 twice in 2012 and 2013 before he played his single jr grade 4 ITF in Nov '13 in ATL-he had to come from Quali and won a single round. He is probably the only ATP player who played in 3 250s before he ever played in a Future (he got a WC into ATL 250 MD in 2015). As you mention his big junior breakthrough was winning 7 MD matches to reach the finals of Southern Closed the summer after his junior year. I dont know how many fans realize that Southern closed is almost as big a draw as Kzoo but much hotter-plus the Southern tourney is played over 8 days while Kzoo is about 2 weeks! (we've been there, done that). The summer after he graduated HS, he didnt play any USTA junior events-instead he won the Atlanta City Open men's prize $ tourney. Now in the college summers and some in the fall, he started playing some Futures and Challengers, but his big Tour break was reaching the QFs of ATP 250 in 2017 and he turned pro after that summer.
His story shows us the importance of residence in the probability of tennis success. Living in Atlanta made big tourneys accessible for a talented player without a lot of travel. He played in 5 250s in ATL before he turned pro. Also it probably helped that he got to know Donald Young. Before he had his singles success, he reached the Atlanta dubs 250 SFs playing with Young in 2015. While I wish Donald young had found his Plan B years ago vs dropping down from Tour to Futures and Challenges, he had to have a positive impact on Eubanks' early career. The $100k check from Oracle in 2017 helped too, but it took 6 long years (probably would have been shorter w/o pandemic) for Chris to reach the top 100. Glad he had made it. This begs the question how many potential top tennis talents chose other sports because they dont live in a city like Atlanta or states like Florida or Cali where their talent could be discovered and mentored?
Kovacevic, also just now in top 100, was a late bloomer too. He didnt commit to Illinois until the summer after he graduated from high school. He was just a 4 star in Dec of his sr year, but he had a great sr spring and summer esp at Kzoo. Compare the success of Kova and Eubanks who were never ranked higher than 5 star and didnt reach that until late in their jr career to many players who boarded at USTA from early teens. It's great to see the late bloomers do well on Tour. I always hate to hear parents or coaches that say players have to be playing national or international events by 10 or 12 to have a chance at success. Not true!
