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condividiEaton, the dream
comes to an end
Tursunov stops the Briton's run. Alessandro Mastroluca
Chris Eaton is the classic underdog having his day in the sun. England is the perfect setting for this adventure. Where an amateur soccer team could face Liverpool or Chelsea in FA Cup, a perfectly unknown tennis player could arrive in the second round at Wimbledon.
Chris Eaton, 20 years old, no.661 in the world rankings, had lost in the semifinal of the playoffs to get into the qualifying tournament at Roehampton. But he was given a wild card, and he suddenly found himself in a world he had previously only seen on TV.
Last month he played a futures tournament in Andijan, Uzbekistan where he took long distance taxis between the matches because he didn't feel safe enough on the internal flights.
In Roehampton he defeated Kukushkin, Minar and Patience. And on Tuesday Eaton hit the headlines by beating Boris Pashanski. The lowest ranked player in the main draw didn't want to wake up from his dream. Eaton, supported by his delighted parents and his girlfriend, faced the Russian giant Dimitri Tursunov in the second round. Eaton approached the match calmly and confidently, holding his first service games without any trouble. After losing the first set on the tiebreak, Eaton started to realize where he was and what was happening. And the match became more and more difficult.
The second set got away from him soon afterwards and when, trailing 2-3, Eaton blew a break point, his destiny seemed assured. And the 7-6 6-2 6-3 defeat became unavoidable.
Anyway, Eaton has to be happy with his performance. Against Tursunov, he hit 10 aces, and the service is effectively his main weapon. On Saturday he tested it at the annual party at the club where he started playing tennis, in Horsley. He said he had no idea of how fast it was.
But he might now realize how fast his career is going to go. His Wimbledon run earned him £17,000, six times more than his career prize money (2,700). Finally he can buy a new car: his old Vauxhall Astra has a wing mirror bound up with duct tape.
Probably this one-day hero, like Amritraj (who defeated McEnroe in 1984, when the American put together that incredible 81-3 record), or Bastl (capable of defeating Sampras here in Wimbledon on the so called "Black Wednesday" in 2003) will return to the futures circuit, where there is neither glamour nor atmosphere, and you have to fight for survival on every point. But when he's old, he'll be able to say to his grandson "A long time ago, your grandfather was on the front pages".
Alessandro Mastroluca
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