The fun fact of the Australian Open 0:45
(CNN Spanish) -
Daniel Elahi Galán is the best-ranked Colombian tennis player in the ATP world ranking in January 2023, in 70th place, a letter with which he reaches the Australian Open, the second major played by the tennis player from 26 years.
This Monday, the Colombian debuts at the Australian Open against Frenchman Jeremy Chardy in the first round of the Grand Slam.
Galán starts in Australia this 2023 with a view to advancing in world tennis, after debuting in a Grand Slam at the Paris Open in 2020, and then playing at Wimbledon the following year.
In London, Galán was the first Colombian to win in a main match at Wimbledon, since Santiago Giraldo did so in 2015, according to the ATP Tour page.
Daniel Elahi Galán of Colombia faces Alejandro Davidovich Fokina of Spain for the third round of men's singles on the fifth day of the US Open 2022. (Credit: Jamie Squire/Getty Images)
The journey of Daniel Galán and his arrival at the 70th position of the ATP
Daniel Galán was born in June 1996 in Bucaramanga, in the northeast of Colombia, but grew up in Bogotá, the capital, where he trained professionally as a tennis player.
He began training at the age of six, driven by the example of a family of athletes who played, among others, soccer, volleyball and, three of his brothers, tennis.
In fact, his older brother, Sat Galán, reached position 650 in the ATP Ranking years ago, his sister Rocío also played professional tennis and currently his father, Santos Galán, is his coach.
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And although tennis was in his life for years, the Colombian skipped his stage as a youth tennis player for economic reasons, according to the ATP page, and began his professional career at the age of 17, when he won his first ATP points.
In 2013, at the beginning of his professional career, he accumulated his first 12 ATP points and reached the top 1,000 in the world ranking for the first time in his career, according to the Colombian Tennis Federation that year.
The Colombian began to reap victories very early in his career.
In 2015 he got his first ATP victory against the Spanish Pere Riba in the first round of the ATP 250 in Bogotá.
In 2018, the Colombian would begin to be at the top of world tennis, when he won his first trophy on the ATP Challenger Tour in San Benedetto del Tronto, in Italy, beating Spanish Sergio Gutierrez-Ferrol 6-2 in the final. , 3-6, 6-2.
At that time he was ranked 166 on the ATP Tour, the best of his career up to that point.
In 2019 he continued to accumulate achievements, adding, this time in Houston, his first two consecutive victories in a main draw on the ATP Tour and, a little later, he would win for the first time in a Grand Slam main draw in Paris.
In 2020, he obtained his first victory in a Grand Slam against the British Cameron Norrie, with partials of 4-6, 6-3, 5-7, 6-1, 6-1.
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Winner Novak Djokovic (right) of Serbia and Daniel Elahi Galan of Colombia leave the court at the end of their men's singles third round tennis match on day 7 of the Roland Garros 2020 Roland Garros tennis tournament in Paris on March 3. October 2020. (Credit: ANNE-CHRISTINE POUJOULAT/AFP via Getty Images)
“It is the first Grand Slam match that I have won and in a fifth set.
So for now I am very happy but also motivated because I know I can keep going, ”he told the ATP.
Later, in the second round of Roland Garros, he beat Tennys Sandgren 6-2, 6-2, 6-3, which gave way to a third round in which he faced none other than Novak Djokovic that pandemic year.
Despite his defeat against the world No. 1 at that time (6-0, 6-3, 6-2) Galán joined the select club of Colombians who had already reached that instance of the Parisian major after Santiago Giraldo in 2012. and Alejandro Falla, who in 2011 reached the round of 16.
The following year, in June 2021, the Colombian debuted with a victory at Wimbledon, his second major, against the Argentine Federico Coria, a victory that gave him weight on international courts.
Finally, in August 2022, at the US Open, the Colombian achieved an important victory on the opening day against Stefanos Tsitsipas, the fifth in the world, scoring an important victory, since it was the first time that he recorded a match in a main draw of the US Open, and the first time he had beaten a Top 20 player.
“I am very proud,” Galán told ESPN, recounting how he prepared his entire life to win on a main court.
"I don't have that much experience in five sets. It's not easy to maintain intensity and concentration for so long, but I was playing well and I kept up despite all the things that happened," said the Colombian after his important victory.
Now the 26-year-old Colombian hopes to reap more victories in a new stage in Australia.
