Gastão José Ministro Elias (; born 24 November 1990) is a Portuguese 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, who competes on the

ATP World Tour The ATP Tour is a worldwide top-tier tennis tour for men organized by the Association of Tennis Professionals. The second-tier tour is the ATP Challenger Tour and the third-tier is the ITF Men's World Tennis Tour. The equivalent women's organi ...

. He became the fifth Portuguese tennis player to break into the top 100 of 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 ...

singles rankings. In October 2016, he reached a career-high singles ranking of world No. 57 to become the second-highest-ranked Portuguese player, after

João Sousa João Pedro Coelho Marinho de Sousa (born 30 March 1989), known as João Sousa (), is a Portuguese professional tennis player. He achieved a career-high ATP singles ranking of No. 28 on 16 May 2016 and a doubles ranking of No. 26 on 13 May 2 ...

(No. 28).

Early and personal life

Gastão Elias was born on 24 November 1990 in

Caldas da Rainha Caldas da Rainha () is a medium-sized Portuguese city in the Oeste region, in the historical province of Estremadura, and in the district of Leiria. The city serves as the seat of the larger municipality of the same name and of the Comunidad ...

, Portugal. At age four, he started playing tennis with his father. In 2001, he participated in the national under-12 singles competition, falling to future Davis Cup partner

in the semifinals. Elias idolized James Blake and

Roger Federer Roger Federer (; born 8 August 1981) is a Swiss former professional tennis player. He was ranked world No. 1 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 310 weeks, including a record 237 consecutive weeks, and finished as the year-e ...

while growing up. He is a supporter of Sporting Clube de Portugal,

Real Madrid C.F. Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (, meaning ''Royal Madrid Football Club''), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional football club based in Madrid. Founded in 1902 as Madrid Football Club, the club has traditionally worn ...

and

Liverpool F.C. Liverpool Football Club is a professional football club based in Liverpool, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. Founded in 1892, the club joined the Football League the following year and has p ...

Career

Professional career

2016 proved to be a breakthrough year for Elias. After winning an

ATP Challenger Tour The ATP Challenger Tour, known until the end of 2008 as the ATP Challenger Series, is a series of international men's professional tennis tournaments. The Challenger Tour events are the second-highest tier of tennis competition, behind the ATP T ...

tournament in Turin by defeating Enrique López-Pérez in three sets and earning position in the top 100, being ranked no. 94, Elias continued capitalizing on his Challenger Tour success as he won his sixth Challenger title in Mestre, Italy by defeating

Horacio Zeballos Horacio Zeballos Jr. (; born 27 April 1985) is an Argentine professional tennis player. His career-high singles ranking is world No. 39 achieved in March 2013 and his career-high doubles ranking is world No. 3 achieved in September 2019. In dou ...

in straight sets. In July 2016, Elias made his first splash on

tournament level in Bastad, Sweden after defeating Christian Lindell,

Taro Daniel is a Japanese-American professional tennis player. He has won one ATP Tour singles title at the 2018 Istanbul Open, seven ATP Challenger Tour singles titles and achieved a career-high singles ranking of world No. 64 on 27 August 2018. Person ...

, and pulling an upset against compatriot

on his way to his first ATP World Tour semifinal. However, in the semifinals, Elias lost to

Fernando Verdasco Fernando Verdasco Carmona (; born 15 November 1983) is a Spanish professional tennis player. His career-high singles ranking is world No. 7, achieved in April 2009. His best performance in a Grand Slam was making the semifinals of the 2009 ...

. Later in July 2016, Elias participated in another ATP World Tour tournament in Umag, Croatia. Elias defeated Guillermo Garcia-Lopez in the round of 32 and then pulled one of the biggest upsets of the tournament by defeating top seeded

Pablo Cuevas Pablo Gabriel Cuevas Urroz (; born January 1, 1986) is an inactive Uruguayan professional tennis player. Cuevas won the 2008 French Open men's doubles title with Luis Horna. He has won six singles titles and has a career-high singles ranking of ...

in a close encounter. That win marked Elias' first win over a top-20 player. Elias then defeated

Pablo Carreño Busta Pablo Carreño Busta (; born 12 July 1991) is a Spanish professional tennis player. He has been ranked as high as world No. 10 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), which he first achieved on 11 September 2017. He also reached a bes ...

and reached his second consecutive ATP World Tour semifinal, where he lost to

Fabio Fognini Fabio Fognini (; born 24 May 1987) is an Italian professional tennis player. He has a career-high ranking of world No. 9 achieved on 15 July 2019. He is currently ranked (July 2022) in 64th place by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) ...

in straight sets.

Playing style

Gastão Elias is offensive baseliner who puts focus on hitting hard and accurate groundstrokes to push his opponents and hitting winners, however also making comparable to winners amount of unforced errors. His serve and forehand shot are dangerous weapons, which are the main instruments in winning points, but return game is one of the weaknesses, which can be exploited by the best players whose game heavily based on strong serve and volley tactic. While feeling most comfortable at the baseline Elias makes occasional runs to the net, though these runs can't be classified as the key aspect of his game. Although his favourite surface is hard, most of his success came on clay.

Challenger and Futures/World Tennis Tour finals

Singles: 33 (16–17)

Doubles: 6 (2 titles, 4 runners-up)

Performance timelines

Singles

''Current through the 2022 Davis Cup.'' ¹Held as

Hamburg Masters The Hamburg European Open (formerly ''German Open Tennis Championships'') is an annual tennis tournament for professional players held in Hamburg, Germany and part of the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) Tour. Before 2021, it was a mal ...

(outdoor clay) until 2008, Madrid Masters (outdoor clay) 2009–present.

Doubles

Wins over top 10 players

Singles

Elias has a 1–1 win–loss career record against ATP top 10-ranked players.

Head-to-head against top 20 players

This section contains Elias's win–loss record against players who have been ranked 20th or higher in the world rankings during their careers.

Career earnings

:* As of 10 April 2017

National participation

Davis Cup (13 wins, 17 losses)

Elias debuted for the Portugal Davis Cup team in 2007 and has played 30 matches in 16 ties. His singles record is 6–8 and his doubles record is 7–9 (13–17 overall). * indicates the result of the Davis Cup match followed by the score, date, place of event, the zonal classification and its phase, and the court surface.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Elias, Gastao 1990 births Living people People from Caldas da Rainha Sportspeople from Bradenton, Florida Portuguese expatriates in the United States Portuguese male tennis players Tennis people from Florida Tennis players at the 2016 Summer Olympics Olympic tennis players of Portugal 21st-century Portuguese people