"He’s become a really, really close friend": Christopher Eubanks counting on inspiration from celebrities Jamie Foxx and Chad Johnson in Miami run

American tennis player Christopher Eubanks has broken into the top 100 on the ATP Rankings for the first time, and he is crediting actor Jamie Foxx for some of his success.

Eubanks defeated Adrian Mannarino to reach the last eight of the ongoing Miami Open, advancing to the quarterfinals of a Masters 1000 event for the first time. This feat carries more significance given the fact that he began the tournament by passing through the qualifying rounds, and will be facing former World No.1 Daniil Medvedev in the quarterfinals.

“It feels good, it feels good. Just like yesterday felt good, this feels great,” Eubanks told the ATP website. “Just something about all of the delays and the stopping, the starting, the warming up and cooling down and warming up, it makes a match like this even sweeter and to think it was for my first Masters 1000 quarter-final is really, really special. It feels great, it feels good right now."

Eubanks has received a lot of support from fans since his breakthrough run, including some words of encouragement from actor Jamie Foxx and NFL legend Chad Johnson. Eubanks has been in contact with the duo, and is hoping to use their words as motivation to propel himself up the rankings.

"It’s amazing man. It’s really, really cool. I’ve known Foxx for two, three years now and he’s become a really, really close friend, someone I can call if I just want to kind of talk through life a little bit,” Eubanks revealed.

“Chad and I actually connected for the first time two or three weeks ago. He posted a video playing tennis and I think we had DM’d in the past and when he posted the video I commented saying, ‘Hey man that looks pretty good.’ He commented back saying, ‘I would love to get on the court with you,’ so I immediately shot him a DM I said, ‘Hey I’m going to be down in Miami for the Miami Open if you want to come out I can see about getting you a credential.’

“We were able to do that and he’s such an avid sports fan. He loves following tennis. He was super excited to be able to meet Carlitos today, he got to meet Tommy the other day. So he’s an all-around sports junkie. It was really cool for him to be able to come out.

“He stuck through one or two rain delays… It’s been really cool to see the outpouring of support. DJ D-Nice is another person who reached out and I got to meet. It’s been really, really cool.”