Ruben Gonzales (tennis)

Ruben Gonzales

Gonzales at the 2022 Internationaux de Tennis de Blois
Country (sports)	Philippines
Born	(1985-09-11) September 11, 1985 (age 39) Terre Haute, Indiana, U.S.
Plays	Right-handed
College	Illinois (2004–2008)
Prize money	$160,745
Singles
Career record	10–5
Career titles	0
Highest ranking	No. 766 (May 6, 2013)
Doubles
Career record	7–3
Career titles	0
Highest ranking	No. 116 (6 March 2023)
Current ranking	No. 168 (15 January 2024)
Medal record Men's Tennis Representing   Philippines Southeast Asian Games 2021 Vietnam Doubles 2023 Cambodia Doubles 2017 Kuala Lumpur Doubles 2019 Philippines Doubles 2015 Singapore Doubles 2015 Singapore Team 2017 Kuala Lumpur Mixed doubles 2021 Vietnam Team
Last updated on: 19 January 2024.

Ruben Gonzales (born September 11, 1985) is an American-born Filipino professional tennis player playing on the ATP Challenger Tour. On May 6, 2013, he reached his highest ATP singles ranking of 766 and his highest doubles ranking of 122 achieved on August 29, 2022.

Personal life

Gonzales was born in Chicago and raised in Terre Haute, Indiana. His parents are from the Philippines and he has two siblings who he watched play tennis. ^[1] At eight years old, he wanted to become a professional tennis player. ^[2] For a time, he lived in Manila, where he spent some of his high school years. ^[1]

In 2019, he proposed to his girlfriend, race car driver Michele Bumgarner. ^[3]

Career

College

In his rookie season, he won the 2005 Big Ten singles consolation championship. He was also named as an ITA Scholar-Athlete. In his sophomore was selected to the Academic All-Big Ten team while having the highest GPA on the team. ^[2]

A lung injury, spontaneous pneumothorax, kept Gonzales out for most of his junior season and unable to qualify for the NCAA tournament in either singles or doubles. ^{[2] [4]} Despite this, he was able to finish with a No. 37 ranking in doubles and a No. 125 ranking in singles as he became known as "The Spirit of Illinois Tennis". He was awarded with Illinois' Scholar Athlete Award and was named to the Academic All-Big Ten team once again. ^[2]

In his senior season, Gonzales helped Illinois defeat Xavier in the first round of the 2008 NCAA Division I tennis championships. ^[5] Illinois made it to the Round of 16, where they lost to Ohio State. ^[6]

Professional

In the 2016 ATP Challenger Philippine Open, Gonzales lost to Igor Sijsling. ^[7]

In 2022, Gonzales won three ATP Challenger doubles championships. ^[8] He followed that up with a runner-up finish in the 2023 Cleveland Open and a semis finish in the Tenerife Challenger. ^[9]

Tour titles

Legend
Grand Slam (0)
ATP Masters Series (0)
ATP Tour (0)
Challengers (7)

Doubles

Outcome	No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Runner-up	1.	June 16, 2013	Internationaux de Tennis de Blois	Clay	Chris Letcher	Jonathan Eysseric Nicolas Renavand	3–6, 4–6
Runner-up	2.	July 28, 2013	Tampere Open	Hard	Chris Letcher	Henri Kontinen Goran Tošić	4–6, 4–6
Winner	1.	July 27, 2014	Tampere Open	Clay	Sean Thornley	Elias Ymer Anton Zaitcev	6–7(5–7), 7–6(12–10), [10–8]
Runner-up	3.	August 3, 2014	Svijany Open	Clay	Sean Thornley	Roman Jebavý Jaroslav Pospíšil	4–6, 3–6
Winner	2.	February 20, 2015	Morelos Open	Hard	Darren Walsh	Emilio Gómez Roberto Maytín	4–6, 6–3, [12–10]
Runner-up	4.	July 16, 2016	Gimcheon Open	Hard	Nicolás Barrientos	Cheng-Peng Hsieh Tsung-Hua Yang	(W/O)
Runner-up	5.	September 17, 2016	China International Nanchang	Hard	Nicolás Barrientos	Wu Di Zhang Zhizhen	6–7(4–7), 3–6
Runner-up	6.	November 19, 2017	Dunlop World Challenge Toyota	Carpet	Christopher Rungkat	Max Purcell Andrew Whittington	3–6, 6–2, [8–10]
Runner-up	7.	April 22, 2018	China International Nanchang	Clay	Christopher Rungkat	Gong Mao-Xin Zhang Ze	6–3, 6–7(7–9), [7–10]
Winner	3.	July 22, 2018	The Hague Open Scheveningen	Clay	Nathaniel Lammons	Luis David Martinez Gonçalo Oliveira	6–3, 6–7(8–10), [10–5]
Runner-up	8.	August 5, 2018	Sopot Open	Clay	Nathaniel Lammons	Mateusz Kowalczyk Szymon Walków	6–7(6–8), 3–6
Winner	4.	October 20, 2019	Las Vegas Challenger	Hard	Ruan Roelofse	Nathan Pasha Max Schnur	2–6, 6–3, [10–8]
Runner-up	9.	November 3, 2019	City of Playford Tennis International II	Hard	Evan King	Harri Heliövaara Patrik Niklas-Salminen	4–6, 7–6(7–4), [7–10]
Winner	5.	September 25, 2021	Bucharest Challenger	Clay	Hunter Johnson	Maximilian Marterer Lukáš Rosol	1–6, 6–2, [10–3]
Winner	6.	April 30, 2022	Savannah Challenger	Clay	Treat Huey	Wu Tung-lin Zhang Zhizhen	7–6(7–3), 6–4
Runner-up	10.	July 16, 2022	Georgia's Rome Challenger	Hard (i)	Reese Stalder	Enzo Couacaud Andrew Harris	4–6, 2–6
Winner	7.	August 20, 2022	República Dominicana Open	Clay	Reese Stalder	Nicolás Barrientos Miguel Ángel Reyes-Varela	7–6(7–5), 6–3
Winner	8.	November 5, 2022	Keio Challenger Yokohama	Hard	Victor Vlad Cornea	Tomoya Fujiwara Masamichi Imamura	7–5, 6–3
Runner-up	11.	February 4, 2023	Cleveland Open	Hard (i)	Reese Stalder	Robert Galloway Hans Hach Verdugo	6–3, 5–7, [6–10]
Runner-up	12.	February 18, 2023	Bahrain Ministry of Interior Tennis Challenger	Hard	Fernando Romboli	Patrik Niklas-Salminen Bart Stevens	3–6, 4–6

References

1. Songalia, Ryan (March 6, 2016). "Tennis player Ruben Gonzales finds purpose in PH nat'l team". Rappler. Archived from the original on July 13, 2022. Retrieved November 6, 2024.
2. Iniguez, Alex (April 3, 2008). "Go-to Gonzales does it all". The Daily Illini. Retrieved November 6, 2024.
3. Valderrama, Aeron Paul (December 7, 2019). "Ruben Gonzales might have lost on SEAG gold but gets yes from fiance Bumgarner". Tiebreaker Times. Retrieved November 6, 2024.
4. Iniguez, Alex (May 4, 2008). "COLUMN: Ruben Gonzales steals spotlight". The Daily Illini. Retrieved November 6, 2024.
5. Iniguez, Alex (May 2, 2008). "Men win in first round of NCAA tournament". The Daily Illini. Retrieved November 6, 2024.
6. http://fs.ncaa.org/Docs/stats/tennis_champs_records/2013-14/2013_DI_MTE.pdf
7. Terrado, Reuben (January 20, 2016). "Ruben Gonzales bows out of ATP Challenger Philippine Open". Spin.ph. Retrieved November 6, 2024.
8. "Gonzales, Cornea rule ATP Yokohama Challenger". Rappler. November 5, 2022. Archived from the original on December 27, 2022. Retrieved November 6, 2024.
9. Mina, Rosy (February 11, 2023). "Tennis: Ruben Gonzales ousted in Tenerife Challenger doubles semis". ABS-CBN News. Retrieved November 7, 2024.

External links

• Ruben Gonzales at the Association of Tennis Professionals
• Ruben Gonzales at the International Tennis Federation
• Ruben Gonzales at the Davis Cup