How one moment led to Ethan Quinn’s explosion
Quinn and coach Brian Garber offer exclusive insights
January 21, 2026
Cameron Spencer/Getty Images
Ethan Quinn defeated Tallon Griekspoor in straight sets in the first round of the Australian Open.
Andrew Eikenholz
A moment can change everything.
Such was the case for Ethan Quinn at the ATP Challenger Tour in Cleveland last January. Despite reaching the final of the Canberra qualifiers at the beginning of the year, the American failed to qualify for the Australian Open and lost in the first round in Cleveland.
“I lost in Cleveland, and I hadn’t even gotten to Dallas yet. So I could definitely look at it a little bit. I might have said, ‘Oh, I’m so unlucky,'” Quinn told ATPTour.com. “I could have stayed in Cleveland and not done the right thing. Then I could have gone to Dallas and not been ready to play Dallas and lose.”
For Americans, this will be two weeks wasted. But instead, he reflected on his loss and realized he had “a pretty good game” and that he simply wasn’t the better player against Colton Smith.
“Then I had people around me the next day. I did a good job in the gym and I was on the court with Brian for a couple hours that day, working on things that I could probably improve on,” Quinn said. “I was able to take full advantage of that and get into the Dallas qualifiers and then get a qualifier and win the first round and from that point on, I just exploded.”
Entering last year’s ATP 500 event in Dallas, Quinn was ranked No. 199 in the PIF ATP Rankings. By June, he entered the top 100 for the first time.
It’s not like he’s hit rock bottom or anything like that. Quinn had two paths to take in Cleveland, and he chose the path of discipline and hard work, which led to the breakthrough.
“After a loss like that, I was able to find a way to make sure I improved that week and then improved the next week,” Quinn said. “Instead of losing the game and then looking for excuses or reasons to be complacent. I think that trust in my team and them holding me accountable to continue to get better, that’s the difference from that moment on the rest of the year.”
Quinn coach Brian Garber viewed the loss as an opportunity. The former college tennis star at the University of Georgia then qualified for Dallas and won a round in the main draw.
“I think it’s harder to manage success than it is to manage failure. He had a great start in Canberra, but after the loss in Cleveland, I told him we weren’t going to change anything we were doing,” Garber said. “We changed our mentality to get rid of [focusing on the] result. Our goal, I text him every night before the game, is to “get closer to the emotionally intelligent version of you that you want to be tomorrow.”
“It’s not an outcome-based goal. We hammered it out a lot last year and went from there.”
While Quinn rose through the ranks quickly, that didn’t mean he was always ecstatic about his achievements. Starting in Mallorca in June, he lost in the second round in five consecutive games.
“I was really frustrated because I kept losing, qualifying for an event and winning the first round and then losing in the second round or losing to the same players multiple times throughout the year,” Quinn said. “I was really frustrated, I wouldn’t say broken, but I was really frustrated because I felt like I was stuck in the same place and I continued to fail in the same place.”
“He was very nervous about not getting past the second round, and one of the reasons was his growth,” Garber said. “At the Summer Masters, he won a really good match in the first round and was playing really good players down the stretch. I told him the next step for him to improve was to be more clinical in the early rounds rather than drop a few sets and tire himself out. [It was about] It was a real point-to-point match, so by the second round he had energy.
“I also reminded him that his path was the same in Challengers and Futures. It started with winning a round or two and then falling. The next step he started winning those rounds or finals. Nothing has changed now, it’s just happening at a higher level.”
This was on display in the first round of the Australian Open against 23rd seed Taron Grikspur. The Dutchman won his first two Lexus ATP head-to-head matches last year, but Quinn won 6-2, 6-3, 6-2 in Melbourne to earn a second-round showdown with Hubert Hurkacz.
“Being in this situation now against a tough player, a player who has had my number in the past,” Quinn said. “It’s refreshing to be able to finish this game.”
