WIMBLEDON sensation Chris Eaton has been taking the tennis world by storm - and Banbridge can claim to have played a role in his success story.
Chris' father, Michael, is from the Newry Road and is a former pupil of Banbridge Academy.
A former head boy at the school, he also attended Abercorn Primary School and was a gifted hockey player.
And it's not hard to see how Chris got into the gam
e when you take into account that Michael himself was quite handy with a tennis racket in his youth.
Chris' wonderful Wimbledon run came to an end in the second round as 25th seed, Russian Dimitry Tursunov, proved a bridge too far, Chris losing 7-6, 6-2, 6-4.
Earlier he had beaten Serbia's Boris Pashanski in the first round, winning 6-3 7-6 6-4 and landing an impressive 26 aces.
Chris has been playing the tournament of his life, having got through the Wimbledon qualifying to earn a place in the main draw.
Looking comfortable throughout his first ever five set match in the final qualifying round, Guildford based Chris beat Frenchman, Olivier Patience, 7-6, 6-3, 7-6 to book himself a place in the main draw.
Previously he had came back from a set down in qualifying round one to beat 15th seed Mikhail Kukushkin from Russia 2-6, 6-4, 7-5, overcoming a ranking discrepancy of 522 places.
Chris recovered from losing the first set on the tie break in the second qualifying round to beat Jan Minar from the Czech Republic convincingly, scoring a 6-7, 6-3, 6-4 win.
This followed an impressive win in the Nottingham qualifying second round against world number 91 Guillermo Garcia-Lopez.
Currently ranked 661 in the world, Chris is the British number 13 at the moment but set to rise dramatically as his newly earned points kick in.
He reached his career-high singles ranking of 640 in January 2008 and his career-high doubles ranking of 410 in May 2008.
Indeed he competed in the doubles competition at the famous tournament alongside Alex Slabinsky, losing in round one to Americans Mike and Bob Bryan - one of the best doubles teams in the world - 5-7, 1-6, 4-6
As a result of his performance at Wimbledon, Chris' ranking is expected to rise to the 400 mark. This will make the 20 year old eligible for Challenger events.
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