Gabriel Urpí Ribas (born 16 August 1961) is a former professional

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

player from

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

Playing career

Urpi was the

Orange Bowl The Orange Bowl is an annual American college football bowl game played in the Miami metropolitan area. Played annually since 1935 Orange Bowl, January 1, 1935, it is tied with the Sugar Bowl and the Sun Bowl as the second-oldest bowl games in ...

champion in 1978 and a semi-finalist in the boys' singles event at the French Open that year. A clay court specialist, he competed in the main draw of the

French Open The French Open (), also known as Roland-Garros (), is a tennis tournament organized by the French Tennis Federation annually at Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France. It is chronologically the second of the four Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Slam ...

in 1981, 1982, 1984 and 1985.ATP World Tour Profile
/ref> The Spaniard had his best performance at the

1982 French Open The 1982 French Open was a tennis tournament that took place on the outdoor clay courts at the Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France. The tournament ran from 24 May until 6 June. It was the 81st staging of the French Open, and the first Grand Sla ...

, where he reached the third round, with wins over Patrizio Parrini and Chris Lewis, the latter in a walkover. He was a quarter-finalist at

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

in 1979,

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

in 1980,

Bordeaux Bordeaux ( ; ; Gascon language, Gascon ; ) is a city on the river Garonne in the Gironde Departments of France, department, southwestern France. A port city, it is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the Prefectures in F ...

in 1981 and

Bari Bari ( ; ; ; ) is the capital city of the Metropolitan City of Bari and of the Apulia Regions of Italy, region, on the Adriatic Sea in southern Italy. It is the first most important economic centre of mainland Southern Italy. It is a port and ...

in 1984. His only semi-final appearance was at the 1987 Bordeaux Open. However, as a doubles player, he reached the Barcelona semi-finals in 1984, partnering Lorenzo Fargas. Two year earlier in

Indianapolis Indianapolis ( ), colloquially known as Indy, is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Indiana, most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana, Marion ...

, Urpi and doubles partner

Rick Fagel Rick Fagel (born November 29, 1953) is a former professional tennis player from the United States. Career Fagel played collegiate tennis at Columbia University and won the Ivy League Championship in 1972, beating Vitas Gerulaitis in the final. ...

had an upset win over

Mark Edmondson Mark Edmondson (born 28 June 1954 in Gosford, New South Wales) is a retired Australian professional tennis player. Edmondson won the 1976 Australian Open while ranked 212th in the world, and remains the lowest-ranked winner of a Grand Slam ...

and

Kim Warwick Kim Warwick (born 8 April 1952) is an Australian former professional male tennis player who competed on the ATP Tour from 1970 to 1987, reaching the singles final of the Australian Open in 1980. He defeated over 35 players ranked in the top t ...

, a pairing that were dual

Australian Open The Australian Open (stylized ΛO) is a tennis tournament organised by Tennis Australia annually at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Victoria (state), Victoria, Australia. It is chronologically the first of the four Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Sl ...

winners.

Coaching

Urpi had been the coach of

Flavia Pennetta Flavia Pennetta (; born 25 February 1982) is an Italian former professional tennis player. She became Italy's first top-ten female singles player on 17 August 2009 and the first Italian to be ranked List of WTA number 1 ranked doubles tennis pla ...

for several years, until her retirement. He was previously the coach of Arantxa Sanchez Vicario in 1994 and 1995, during which time she won two

Grand Slam Grand Slam or Grand slam may refer to: Games and sports * Grand slam, winning category terminology originating in contract bridge and other whist card games Athletics * Grand Slam Track, professional track and field league Auto racing * ...

tournaments and also coached

Conchita Martínez Conchita Martínez Bernat (born 16 April 1972) is a Spanish former professional tennis player and current coach. She was the first Spaniard to win the women's singles title at Wimbledon, doing so in 1994. Martínez also was the runner-up at th ...

to the

1998 Australian Open The 1998 Australian Open was a tennis tournament played on outdoor hard courts at Melbourne Park in Melbourne in Victoria in Australia. It was the 86th edition of the Australian Open and was held from 19 January through 1 February 1998. Senior ...

final. In 2017, he worked as a coach of

Elina Svitolina Elina Mykhailivna Svitolina (, ; born 12 September 1994) is a Ukrainian professional tennis player. She reached career-high rankings of world No. 3 in singles and No. 108 in doubles by the WTA rankings, WTA. Svitolina has won 18 WTA Tour single ...

, having also formerly coached

Nicolas Mahut Nicolas Pierre Armand Mahut (; born 21 January 1982) is a French professional tennis player who is a former world No. 1 in doubles. He is a five-time Grand Slam champion in doubles, having completed the career Grand Slam with victories at th ...

. In 2021, Urpí began coaching

Caroline Garcia Caroline Garcia (, born 16 October 1993) is a French professional tennis player. She had a career-high WTA rankings, ranking of world No. 4 in singles and world No. 2 in doubles. Garcia was the 2022 WTA Finals – Singles, 2022 WTA Finals champi ...

Challenger finals

Singles: (1-0)

Doubles: (2-1)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Urpi, Gabriel 1961 births Living people Spanish male tennis players Spanish tennis coaches People from Baix Penedès Sportspeople from the Province of Tarragona Sportspeople from Tarragona Tennis players from Catalonia 20th-century Spanish sportsmen