How sweet it is: Eubanks's climb up the ranks is 'icing on the cake'

LONDON : Chris Eubanks has emerged as the unlikely American man to go the distance at Wimbledon, downing Australian Chris O'Connell in straight sets on Saturday to reach the fourth round and keep his meteoric climb up the rankings on track.

His sharp commentary on the Tennis Channel has earned rave reviews but it is his performance on his least favourite surface this week that has been the talk of the grass court major.

While his higher-ranked compatriots Taylor Fritz and Tommy Paul suffered early exits, Eubanks, 43rd in the world going into Wimbledon, is expected to reach the top 40 now with his best-ever major performance after cracking the top 100 only four months ago.

"Your career really changes going from 110 to 85. You can argue that it does change as well going from 85 to 50. But when you spent four or five years hovering between 150 and 200 and 220, that jump from 110 to 85 meant so, so, so much to me," he told reporters.

"Everything is just sweet now. Everything just continues. It's like the icing on the cake."

Eubanks survived the unenviable task of facing Cameron Norrie in front of a loyal home crowd on Friday, beating the British number one in an inspired performance.

A day later, he unleashed a hailstorm of 23 aces and 65 winners to conquer O'Connell and set up a meeting with Greek fifth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas, who claimed a 6-4 7-6(5) 6-4 win over Serbia's Laslo Djere.

World number three Daniil Medvedev, who beat Eubanks in Miami this week, described the American's game as "total tennis".

"He is not scared of anything. He just goes for it. Hits very, very fast. Goes to the net as soon as he has the opportunity," said Medvedev. "He managed to find something this year which I don't think he had before."

Eubanks has