"On the men’s side, we haven’t had the luxury of having a Black male like Serena Williams" - Christopher Eubanks

Christopher Eubanks has stated that he did not have Black male role models in tennis to look up to as a kid, someone in the mold of Serena Williams to inspire the next generation.

Black male players have been a rarity in tennis history. Arthur Ashe was the first, to date the only, African-American to win a Grand Slam (1968 US Open). He won two more Majors (1970 Australian Open and 1975 Wimbledon) in his career.

More recently, there have been the likes of James Blake, who won 10 ATP titles, Jo-Wilfred Tsonga, who finished as the runner-up at the 2008 Australian Open, and Gael Monfils, who reached a career-high ranking of World No. 6.

Williams, on the other hand, is widely regarded as one of the greatest tennis players of all time and was active until as recently as 2022. She was ranked World No. 1 for 319 weeks, won an Open Era record 23 Grand Slam singles titles, and remains the only player to accomplish a career Golden Slam in both singles and doubles.

Eubanks reflected on the difficulties of growing up without Black male role models in the sport, before stating that he, along with a few others, are changing that aspect for the future generations.

“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,” he said in an interview with The Guardian.

“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,’” he added.

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Frances Tiafoe echoes Christopher Eubanks' views on the need for diversity in sport

Frances Tiafoe at the 2023 US Open.

Christopher Eubanks' compatriot Frances Tiafoe also spoke on the importance of diversity in the sport recently.

At a press conference on the sidelines of the 2023 US Open, Tiafoe stressed the need for him to keep performing to the best of his abilities to ensure more people of color follow the sport and increase diversity.

"Yeah, cool [the amount of impact and amount of people coming to see me and want to see me]. Want to see me, want to meet me, it's cool. Some of that is super humbling," he said.

"Yeah, again, diversity in sport speaks volumes. Obviously it has people tune into the game that usually wouldn't. I have to keep winning so they stay interested. Obviously I want to impact a lot of people of color to want to pursue the game of tennis. It's big shoes to fill but a great seat to be in," he added.

Tiafoe made a strong start to his US Open campaign by defeating American wild card Learner Tien in straight sets and setting up a second-round clash with Sebastian Ofner. Eubanks, on the other hand, defeated Kwon Soon-woo in four sets in his opening-round clash and will next face Benjamin Bonzi.