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

Oviedo Oviedo () or Uviéu (Asturian language, Asturian: ) is the capital city of the Principality of Asturias in northern Spain and the administrative and commercial centre of the region. It is also the name of the municipality that contains th ...

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 ...

. After many years as a professional tennis coach Blanco joined the

Davis Cup The Davis Cup is the premier international team event in men's tennis. It is organised by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and contested annually between teams from over 150 competing countries, making it the world's largest annual ...

steering committee in 2018.

Tennis career

Blanco came closest to winning a Grand Slam title in 1997, reaching the quarterfinals 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 ...

by defeating Neville Godwin, Magnus Gustafsson, Chris Woodruff and

Petr Korda Petr Korda (born 23 January 1968) is a Czech former professional tennis player. He was ranked world No. 2 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) in February 1998. Korda won ten singles titles, including the 1998 Austr ...

before losing to

Pat Rafter Patrick Michael Rafter (born 28 December 1972) is an Australian former professional tennis player. He was ranked as the world No. 1 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), and world No. 6 in doubles. Rafter won eleven ...

. He won his only title in 1999 San Marino GO&FUN Open to his countryman Albert Portas 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; ; born 27 January 1980) is a Russian former professional tennis player and former politician. He was ranked as the List of ...

. 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 professional tennis player. He was ranked as the world No. 1 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), and world No. 6 in doubles. Rafter won eleven ...

, in the first round of the 2000 US Open, and in beating

Pete Sampras Pete Sampras (born August 12, 1971) is an American former professional tennis player. One of the most successful tennis players of all time, he was ranked as the List of ATP number 1 ranked singles players, world No. 1 in men's singles by the A ...

in the second round of the 2001 French Open. Blanco lost in the second round of the

2004 Australian Open The 2004 Australian Open was a Grand Slam (tennis), 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 Mara ...

. He announced his retirement after the

2006 Torneo Godó The 2006 Torneo Godó was a men's professional tennis tournament that was part of the International Series Gold of the 2006 ATP Tour. It was the 54th edition of the Torneo Godó and it took place from 24 April until 30 April 2006 in Barcelona, C ...

Coaching career

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

Milos Raonic Milos Raonic ( sr-Cyrl, Милош Раонић, Miloš Raonić, ; born December 27, 1990) is a Canadian professional tennis player. He has been ATP rankings, ranked world No. 3 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP ...

. This partnership ended in May 2013. He coached Canadian Filip Peliwo. He coached

Karen Khachanov Karen Abgarovich Khachanov (, ; born 21 May 1996) is a Russian professional tennis player. He has been ranked as high as world No. 8 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), achieved in July 2019. Khachanov has won seve ...

until November 2017. He coached

Dominic Thiem Dominic Thiem (; born 3 September 1993) is an Austrian former professional tennis player. He was ranked world No. 3 in singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), which he first achieved in March 2020. Thiem won 17 ATP Tour-level s ...

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 and the ATP Challenger Tour. It was formed in September 1972 by Donald Dell, Jack Kramer, and Cliff Drysdale to p ...

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