Galo Blanco (; born 8 October 1976) is a retired professional tennis player from Oviedo, Spain. After many years as a professional tennis coach Blanco joined the Davis Cup steering committee in 2018.
Tennis career Blanco came closest to winning a Grand Slam title in 1997, reaching the quarterfinals of the French Open by defeating Neville Godwin, Magnus Gustafsson, Chris Woodruff and Petr Korda before losing to Pat Rafter. 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.
Blanco had two high-profile wins in majors, beating former 2-time US Open Champion, Patrick Rafter, in the first round of the 2000 US Open, and in beating Pete Sampras in the second round of the 2001 French Open.
Blanco lost in the second round of the 2004 Australian Open. 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. This partnership ended in May 2013. He coached Canadian Filip Peliwo. He coached Karen Khachanov until November 2017. He coached Dominic Thiem 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) LegendGrand Slam Tournaments (0–0)ATP World Tour Finals (0–0)ATP Masters 1000 (0–0)ATP 500 Series (0–1)ATP 250 Series (1–0)Finals by surfaceHard (0–0)Clay (1–1)Grass (0–0)Carpet (0–0)Finals by settingOutdoors (1–1)Indoors (0–0)
ResultW–LDateTournamentTierSurfaceOpponentScoreWin1–0San Marino, San MarinoWorld SeriesClay Albert Portas4–6, 6–4, 6–3Loss1–1Acapulco, MexicoChampionship SeriesClay Gustavo Kuerten4–6, 2–6
ATP Challenger and ITF Futures finals
Singles: 9 (4–5) LegendATP Challenger (4–5)ITF Futures (0–0)Finals by surfaceHard (0–0)Clay (4–5)Grass (0–0)Carpet (0–0)
ResultW–LDateTournamentTierSurfaceOpponentScoreWin1–0Tampere, FinlandChallengerClay Christian Bergström6–3, 6–1Win2–0Prague, Czech RepublicChallengerClay Gustavo Kuerten6–1, 6–2Loss2–1Dresden, GermanyChallengerClay Patrik Fredriksson4–6, 4–6Loss2–2Oporto, PortugalChallengerClay Richard Fromberg3–6, 6–7Loss2–3Campinas, BrazilChallengerClay Gustavo Kuerten6–7, 3–6Win3–3Poznań, PolandChallengerClay Fredrik Jonsson6–4, 6–2Loss3–4Montevideo, UruguayChallengerClay Karim Alami3–6, 1–6Loss3–5Geneva, SwitzerlandChallengerClay Kristof Vliegen2–6, 2–6Win4–5Brindisi, ItalyChallengerClay Francisco Fogués7–5, 1–6, 7–5
Performance timelines
Singles Tournament1996199719981999200020012002200320042005SRW–LWin %Grand Slam tournamentsAustralian OpenA1R1R1R1R1R1RA2RA0 / 71–7French Open1RQF1R1R1R4R1R3R3RQ10 / 911–9WimbledonAA1R2R1R1R1RA1RA0 / 61–6US Open1R1R1R2R2R1RAAAA0 / 62–6Win–loss0–24–30–42–41–43–40–32–13–30–00 / 2815–28ATP Masters SeriesIndian WellsAQ1Q1Q2AA1RAAA0 / 10–1MiamiA1R3R1R1RA1RAAA0 / 52–5Monte CarloAQ22RAA3RQ2Q2Q1A0 / 23–2HamburgAA1RAQ1AQ2AAA0 / 10–1RomeAA1RQ1AQ11RQ1AA0 / 20–2StuttgartAAAAAQ1Not Masters Series0 / 00–0MadridNot HeldAQ2AA0 / 00–0Win–loss0–00–13–40–10–12–10–30–00–00–00 / 115–11
Wins over top 10 ranked players Season19971998199920002001TotalWins200024
Wins over Top 10s per season #PlayerRankEventSurfaceRdScore19971. Carlos Moyá10Stuttgart, GermanyClay2R4–6, 7–6(7–3), 7–52. Àlex Corretja4Kitzbühel, AustriaClay3R7–6(7–4), 7–520013. Juan Carlos Ferrero9Monte-Carlo, MonacoClay2R6–2, 7–6(7–3)4. Pete Sampras5French Open, Paris, FranceClay2R7–6(7–4), 6–3, 6–2
Notes
References
External links
Galo Blanco at the Association of Tennis Professionals Coach profile