Galo Blanco (; born 8 October 1976) is a retired professional

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

player from Oviedo,

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. After many years as a professional tennis coach Blanco joined the Davis Cup steering committee in 2018.

Tennis career

Most of Blanco's early professional tour appearances were earned by qualifying for tournaments. He would do so by winning the qualifier's rounds that are usually played before the tournaments themselves, to fill one last tournament spot. It was that way that he was able to participate at the Fairmonts tournament in Scottsdale,

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...

U.S. The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

in 1996, for example. Blanco eventually began to be invited to tournaments, and his name has gained reasonable importance in the men's professional circuit. He came closest to winning a Grand Slam title in 1997, reaching the quarterfinals of the French Open by defeating

Neville Godwin Neville Godwin (born 31 January 1975) is a former tennis player from South Africa. Godwin turned professional in 1994. The right-hander won one singles title (2001 Newport) in his career, and reached his highest individual ranking on the ATP ...

Magnus Gustafsson Magnus Nils Gustafsson (born 3 January 1967) is a tennis coach and former top ten professional tennis player from Sweden. Gustafsson won 14 tour singles titles during his career and finished 15 consecutive seasons within the world's top 100, r ...

Chris Woodruff Chris Woodruff (born January 3, 1973) is an American former professional tennis player and current head coach at the University of Tennessee. He won the 1997 Canada Masters, reached the quarterfinals of the 2000 Australian Open and attained a ...

and

Petr Korda Petr Korda (born 23 January 1968) is a Czech former professional tennis player. He won the 1998 Australian Open and was runner-up at the 1992 French Open, reaching a career-high ranking of No. 2 in February 1998. Korda tested positive for dopin ...

before losing to

Pat Rafter Patrick Michael Rafter (born 28 December 1972) is an Australian former world No. 1 tennis player. He reached the top Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) singles ranking on 26 July 1999. His career highlights include consecutive US Open ...

. He won his only title in 1999 San Marino GO&FUN Open to his countryman

Albert Portas Albert Portas Soy (, ; born 15 November 1973) is a Spanish former professional tennis player. Career Portas turned professional in 1994. He reached his career-high singles ranking of World No. 19 in October 2001. His only top-level singles tit ...

and reached the final ( 2001 Mexican Open) and the semifinals in 2000 Majorca Open losing to eventual champion

Marat Safin Marat Mubinovich Safin ( rus, Мара́т Муби́нович Са́фин, , mɐˈrat ˈsafʲɪn, Ru-Marat-Safin.ogg; tt-Cyrl, Марат Мөбин улы Сафин; born 27 January 1980) is a Russian retired world No. 1 tennis player an ...

. Blanco had two high-profile wins in majors, beating former 2-time US Open Champion,

Patrick Rafter Patrick Michael Rafter (born 28 December 1972) is an Australian former world No. 1 tennis player. He reached the top Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) singles ranking on 26 July 1999. His career highlights include consecutive US Open ...

, in the first round of the 2000 US Open, and in beating Pete Sampras in the second round of the

2001 French Open The 2001 French Open was the second Grand Slam event of 2001 and the 105th edition of the French Open. It took place at the Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France, from late May through early June, 2001. Seniors Men's singles Gustavo Kuerten de ...

. Blanco lost in the second round of the

2004 Australian Open The 2004 Australian Open was a Grand Slam tennis tournament held in Melbourne, Australia from 19 January to 1 February 2004. Andre Agassi was unsuccessful in defending his 2003 title, being defeated in the semi-finals by Marat Safin. This ended ...

. He announced his retirement after the 2006 Torneo Godó.

Coaching career

Blanco is a prominent tennis coach. He has previously coached the rising Canadian star

Milos Raonic Milos Raonic (; sr, Милош Раонић, Miloš Raonić, ; born December 27, 1990) is a Canadian inactive professional tennis player. He has been ATP rankings, ranked as high as world No. 3 in singles by the Association of Tennis Professio ...

. This partnership ended in May 2013. He coached Canadian

Filip Peliwo Filip Peliwo ( , ; born January 30, 1994) is a Canadian-born Polish professional tennis player. Peliwo became the first Canadian male and second Canadian ever to win a Grand Slam in singles at any level with his 2012 Wimbledon boys' title win. T ...

. He coached

Karen Khachanov Karen Abgarovich Khachanov (russian: Каре́н Абга́рович Хача́нов; born 21 May 1996) is a Russian professional tennis player. Khachanov has won four ATP Tour singles titles, including a Masters 1000 title at the 2018 Paris ...

until November 2017. He coached

Dominic Thiem Dominic Thiem (; born 3 September 1993) is an Austrian professional tennis player. He has been ranked as high as world No. 3 in singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals, which he first achieved in March 2020. He is the second-highest ...

from December 2017 until November 2018.

Life after tennis

Since the beginning of 2019 Blanco has been working on the new format Davis Cup event. In June 2021, Kosmos announced the launch of an athlete management agency to be headed up by Blanco.

ATP career finals

Singles: 2 (1 title, 1 runner-up)

ATP Challenger and ITF Futures finals

Singles: 9 (4–5)

Performance timelines

Singles

Wins over top 10 ranked players

Wins over Top 10s per season

Notes

References

External links

*
Galo Blanco
at the

Association of Tennis Professionals The Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) is the governing body of the men's professional tennis circuits – the ATP Tour, the ATP Challenger Tour and the ATP Champions Tour. It was formed in September 1972 by Donald Dell, Jack Kramer, a ...

Coach profile * {{DEFAULTSORT:Blanco, Galo 1976 births Living people Sportspeople from Oviedo Spanish male tennis players Spanish tennis coaches Tennis players from Asturias