Galo Blanco

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.