Galo Blanco
# Galo Blanco

Galo Blanco (Spanish pronunciation:; 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)

* Legend
* Grand 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 surface
* Hard (0–0)
* Clay (1–1)
* Grass (0–0)
* Carpet (0–0)
* Finals by setting
* Outdoors (1–1)
* Indoors (0–0)

| Result | W–L | Date | Tournament | Tier | Surface | Opponent | Score |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Win | 1–0 | Aug 1999 | San Marino, San Marino | World Series | Clay | Albert Portas | 4–6, 6–4, 6–3 |
| Loss | 1–1 | Mar 2001 | Acapulco, Mexico | Championship Series | Clay | Gustavo Kuerten | 4–6, 2–6 |

## ATP Challenger and ITF Futures finals

### Singles: 9 (4–5)

* Legend
* ATP Challenger (4–5)
* ITF Futures (0–0)
* Finals by surface
* Hard (0–0)
* Clay (4–5)
* Grass (0–0)
* Carpet (0–0)

| Result | W–L | Date | Tournament | Tier | Surface | Opponent | Score |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Win | 1–0 | Jul 1995 | Tampere, Finland | Challenger | Clay | Christian Bergström | 6–3, 6–1 |
| Win | 2–0 | Apr 1996 | Prague, Czech Republic | Challenger | Clay | Gustavo Kuerten | 6–1, 6–2 |
| Loss | 2–1 | May 1996 | Dresden, Germany | Challenger | Clay | Patrik Fredriksson | 4–6, 4–6 |
| Loss | 2–2 | Sep 1996 | Oporto, Portugal | Challenger | Clay | Richard Fromberg | 3–6, 6–7 |
| Loss | 2–3 | Nov 1996 | Campinas, Brazil | Challenger | Clay | Gustavo Kuerten | 6–7, 3–6 |
| Win | 3–3 | Aug 1999 | Poznań, Poland | Challenger | Clay | Fredrik Jonsson | 6–4, 6–2 |
| Loss | 3–4 | Nov 1999 | Montevideo, Uruguay | Challenger | Clay | Karim Alami | 3–6, 1–6 |
| Loss | 3–5 | Aug 2002 | Geneva, Switzerland | Challenger | Clay | Kristof Vliegen | 2–6, 2–6 |
| Win | 4–5 | Aug 2003 | Brindisi, Italy | Challenger | Clay | Francisco Fogués | 7–5, 1–6, 7–5 |

## Performance timelines

Key :

| W | F | SF | QF | #R | RR | Q# | DNQ | A | NH |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |

### Singles

| Tournament | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | SR | W–L | Win % |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Grand Slam tournaments ||||||||||||||
| Australian Open | A | 1R | 1R | 1R | 1R | 1R | 1R | A | 2R | A | 0 / 7 | 1–7 | 13% |
| French Open | 1R | QF | 1R | 1R | 1R | 4R | 1R | 3R | 3R | Q1 | 0 / 9 | 11–9 | 55% |
| Wimbledon | A | A | 1R | 2R | 1R | 1R | 1R | A | 1R | A | 0 / 6 | 1–6 | 14% |
| US Open | 1R | 1R | 1R | 2R | 2R | 1R | A | A | A | A | 0 / 6 | 2–6 | 25% |
| Win–loss | 0–2 | 4–3 | 0–4 | 2–4 | 1–4 | 3–4 | 0–3 | 2–1 | 3–3 | 0–0 | 0 / 28 | 15–28 | 35% |
| ATP Masters Series ||||||||||||||
| Indian Wells | A | Q1 | Q1 | Q2 | A | A | 1R | A | A | A | 0 / 1 | 0–1 | 0% |
| Miami | A | 1R | 3R | 1R | 1R | A | 1R | A | A | A | 0 / 5 | 2–5 | 29% |
| Monte Carlo | A | Q2 | 2R | A | A | 3R | Q2 | Q2 | Q1 | A | 0 / 2 | 3–2 | 60% |
| Hamburg | A | A | 1R | A | Q1 | A | Q2 | A | A | A | 0 / 1 | 0–1 | 0% |
| Rome | A | A | 1R | Q1 | A | Q1 | 1R | Q1 | A | A | 0 / 2 | 0–2 | 0% |
| Stuttgart | A | A | A | A | A | Q1 | Not Masters Series | Not Masters Series | Not Masters Series | Not Masters Series | 0 / 0 | 0–0 | – |
| Madrid | Not Held | Not Held | Not Held | Not Held | Not Held | Not Held | A | Q2 | A | A | 0 / 0 | 0–0 | – |
| Win–loss | 0–0 | 0–1 | 3–4 | 0–1 | 0–1 | 2–1 | 0–3 | 0–0 | 0–0 | 0–0 | 0 / 11 | 5–11 | 31% |

## Wins over top 10 ranked players

| Season | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | Total |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Wins | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 4 |

### Wins over Top 10s per season

| # | Player | Rank | Event | Surface | Rd | Score |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 1997 |||||||
| 1. | Carlos Moyá | 10 | Stuttgart, Germany | Clay | 2R | 4–6, $7–6^{(7–3)},$ 7–5 |
| 2. | Àlex Corretja | 4 | Kitzbühel, Austria | Clay | 3R | $7–6^{(7–4)},$ 7–5 |
| 2001 |||||||
| 3. | Juan Carlos Ferrero | 9 | Monte-Carlo, Monaco | Clay | 2R | 6–2, $7–6^{(7–3)}$ |
| 4. | Pete Sampras | 5 | French Open, Paris, France | Clay | 2R | $7–6^{(7–4)},$ 6–3, 6–2 |
