Chris Eubanks rides grass-court advice from Kim Clijsters to first career ATP singles title

WATCH: Chris Eubanks beat Adrian Mannarino to win the Mallorca Championships.

Tennis united, indeed. A secret weapon helped American Chris Eubanks win his first career ATP singles title and close out his pre-Wimbledon preparations on a high note: advice from Hall of Famer Kim Clijsters. After a 6-1, 6-4 triumph against Adrian Mannarino in Saturday's final of the Mallorca Championships, Eubanks shared not only that the two spoke, but exactly what they talked about.

"How it started vs. How it’s going," Eubanks wrote on Twitter to accompany of screenshot of their messages. "Major THANK YOU to @Clijsterskim for keeping my spirits up at the start of this grass court season."

Following a second-round loss to Austrian Junri Rodionov at the Surbiton Challenger on June 8, Eubanks reached out to Clijsters on WhatsApp, calling grass "the stupidest surface to play tennis on." The slower-playing grass, he wrote, took away from his game's biggest strengths.

"Just frustrated with the inconsistent bounces when I'm trying to take the ball early," Eubanks said. "Plus the grass is slow and takes away from the effectiveness of my serve. I'm gonna have [to] problem solve a bit until I get back on hard courts.

"I need 17 steps to change direction out of the corners. ... I'm so used to hard court where it's one step and go."

While Clijsters never won Wimbledon in singles—she was a semifinalist in 2003 and 2006—she won the doubles titles in 2003 with Japan's Ai Sugiyama. One of the WTA's best movers at her peak, Clijsters sympathized with Eubanks' frustrations, and offered him some simple suggestions on what to focus on.

"Try to do some little footwork drills every day in practice, even some mini-tennis games," she wrote. "Only use open racket and play in two service boxes. Stay low, use your slice on FH [forehand] and BH [backhand] side. Just for footwork."

As it turned out, Eubanks had plenty of opportunities to test out Clijsters' advice over the course of his title-winning run. Unseeded, he beat No. 3 seed Ben Shelton in the second round, one of three three-setters he played before beating No. 4 seed Mannarino in the final. He came from a set down against Shelton, and also against South Africa's Lloyd Harris in the semifinals—a match in which he saved five match points before winning.

Now 12-3 on grass this year, Eubanks will look to keep his good form going in his Wimbledon main-draw debut on Tuesday. He'll face Brazil's Thiago Monteiro in the first round, with a match against No. 12 seed Cameron Norrie possibly looming in the second round.