Topic: Frederico Gil

Frederico Gil (born March 24, 1985) is a Portuguese professional tennis player who competes on the ATP Tour. In April 2011, he achieved a career-high singles world ranking no. 62, the highest ranking a Portuguese player has ever held. He was also the first Portuguese to reach an ATP Tour final at the 2010 Estoril Open, and the first to achieve a career prize money over one million dollars. His coach is former player João Cunha e Silva.

Frederico Gil was born in Lisbon, Portugal to Rui and Carlota Gil. He has a younger sister named Ana. Gil began to play tennis at the age of five and considers clay his favorite surface. During his junior career he won three titles (in Bolivia in 2002 and Argentina and Portugal in 2003) and reached three other finals (twice in Portugal in 2002 and once in Brazil in 2003). In his last junior tournament he reached the quarterfinals at the Orange Bowl, which led him to finish at no. 10 in the world junior rankings in 2003.

Gil turned professional in 2003 and spent several years on the Futures and Challenger circuits. Until his ATP debut in May 2006, at the Estoril Open, he had won five singles and two doubles Futures titles. He entered Estoril as a wildcard and reached the quarterfinals, surprisingly defeating fifth seed and no. 33 Dmitry Tursunov 4–6, 6–4, 6–1 along the way, before losing to eventual champion and first seed and no. 4 David Nalbandian 6–1, 6–2. He then captured his first Challenger title in June, at Sassuolo.