This week, we’re LIVE at the US Open with former Wimbledon quarterfinalist and current voice of tennis on ESPN, TNT, and Tennis Channel, Chris Eubanks.

Chris is here to help me unpack one of, if not my favorite tennis moments ever.

It was 1991. I was a little kid watching the Yankees. Shortly after the game ended, I was swallowed whole by the raucous celebrations and charismatic energy of a 39-yard old Jimmy Connors.

Connors was making an outrageous run at the US Open, upsetting one opponent after the next and slowly transforming a tennis crowd into a rabid New York crowd, one making noises normally reserved for a metal concert in a football stadium.

It was incredibly cool.

Connors didn’t get the job done that year, but the run has stuck with me, and every tennis fan who experienced that moment, ever since. More than three decades later, it remains a huge part of US Open lore.

Chris Eubanks wasn’t born yet when Connors turned Louis Armstrong Stadium into a rock concert, but he gives me his view of the moment from the perspective of a guy who’s been there. We talk about momentum in tennis, what it’s like to go viral as an athlete, and the greatest showmen in tennis history.

Oh, and I tried my best to get him to do the patented Connors hip thrust and fist pump.

I tried.

Welcome to Episode 008 of REAL DEAL! I’m Tony Reali, and I’m so happy you’re here.

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