Gastão Elias

Gastão José Ministro Elias (; born 24 November 1990) is a Portuguese professional tennis player, who competes on the ATP Challenger Tour. In October 2016, he reached a career-high singles ranking of world No. 57 to become the third highest-ranked Portuguese player, after João Sousa (No. 28) and Nuno Borges (No. 30). He became the fifth Portuguese tennis player to break into the top 100 of the ATP singles rankings.

Early life Gastão Elias was born on 24 November 1990 in Caldas da Rainha, 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 João Sousa in the semifinals. Elias idolized James Blake and Roger Federer while growing up. He is a supporter of Sporting Clube de Portugal, Real Madrid C.F. and Liverpool F.C.

Career The year 2016 proved to be a breakthrough season for Elias. After winning an ATP Challenger Tour 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 in straight sets.

In July 2016, Elias made his first splash on ATP Tour tournament level in Båstad, Sweden after defeating Christian Lindell, Taro Daniel, and pulling an upset against compatriot João Sousa on his way to his first ATP Tour semifinal. However, in the semifinals, Elias lost to Fernando Verdasco. Later that month, Elias participated in another ATP Tour event in Umag, Croatia. Elias defeated Guillermo García López in the round of 32 and then pulled one of the biggest upsets of the tournament by defeating top seeded Pablo Cuevas in a close encounter. That win marked Elias' first win over a top-20 player. Elias then defeated Pablo Carreño Busta and reached his second consecutive ATP Tour semifinal, where he lost to Fabio Fognini in straight sets.

Playing style Gastão Elias is an offensive baseliner who puts focus on hitting hard and accurate groundstrokes to push his opponents and hitting winners, however also making comparable amounts of winners to unforced errors. His serve and forehand shot are dangerous weapons, which are the main instruments in winning points, but his return game is one of the weaknesses, which can be exploited by the best players whose game is 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 not be classified as the key aspect of his game. Although his favourite surface is hard, most of his success has come on clay.

ATP Challenger and ITF Tour finals

Singles: 35 (16 titles, 19 runner-ups) LegendATP Challenger Tour (10–13)ITF Futures/WTT (6–6)Finals by surfaceHard (6–6)Clay (10–13)

Doubles: 6 (2 titles, 4 runner-ups) LegendATP Challenger Tour (2–4)ITF Futures/WTT (0–0)Finals by surfaceHard (0–0)Clay (2–4)

Performance timelines

Singles Current through the 2022 Davis Cup. 1Held as Hamburg Masters (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.

Career earnings YearMajor titlesATP titlesTotal titlesEarnings2006000$7,379 2007000$7,882 2008000$13,799 2009000$4,758 2010000$5,085 2011000$47,148 2012000$71,148 2013000$97,085 2014000$144,557 2015000$112,164 2016000$269,720 2017000* $109,560 Career *000$890,286 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).

Group membershipWorld Group (0–0)WG Play-off (0–0)Group I (6–13)Group II (7–4)Group III (0–0)Group IV (0–0)Matches by surfaceHard (1–14)Clay (11–2)Grass (0–0)Carpet (1–1)Matches by TypeSingles (6–8)Doubles (7–9)Matches by SettingIndoors (5–15)Outdoors (8–2)Matches by VenuePortugal (11–4)Away (2–13) 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.