Ruben Gonzales (born September 11, 1985) is an American-born Filipino professional tennis player playing on the ATP Challenger Tour. On 6 May 2013, he reached his highest ATP singles ranking of No. 766 and his highest doubles ranking of No. 116 achieved on 6 March 2023.
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. At eight years old, he wanted to become a professional tennis player. For a time, he lived in Manila, where he spent some of his high school years.
In 2019, he proposed to his girlfriend, race car driver Michele Bumgarner.
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.
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. 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.
In his senior season, Gonzales helped Illinois defeat Xavier in the first round of the 2008 NCAA Division I tennis championships. Illinois made it to the Round of 16, where they lost to Ohio State.
Professional In the 2016 ATP Challenger Philippine Open, Gonzales lost to Igor Sijsling.
In 2022, Gonzales won three ATP Challenger doubles championships. He followed that up with a runner-up finish in the 2023 Cleveland Open and a semis finish in the Tenerife Challenger.
Tour titles LegendGrand Slam (0)ATP Masters Series (0)ATP Tour (0)Challengers (7)
Doubles OutcomeNo.DateTournamentSurfacePartnerOpponentsScoreRunner-up1.June 16, 2013Internationaux de Tennis de BloisClay Chris Letcher Jonathan Eysseric Nicolas Renavand3–6, 4–6Runner-up2.July 28, 2013Tampere OpenHard Chris Letcher Henri Kontinen Goran Tošić4–6, 4–6Winner1.July 27, 2014Tampere OpenClay Sean Thornley Elias Ymer Anton Zaitcev6–7(5–7), 7–6(12–10), [10–8]Runner-up3.August 3, 2014Svijany OpenClay Sean Thornley Roman Jebavý Jaroslav Pospíšil4–6, 3–6Winner2.February 20, 2015Morelos OpenHard Darren Walsh Emilio Gómez Roberto Maytín4–6, 6–3, [12–10]Runner-up4.July 16, 2016Gimcheon OpenHard Nicolás Barrientos Cheng-Peng Hsieh Tsung-Hua Yang(W/O)Runner-up5.September 17, 2016China International NanchangHard Nicolás Barrientos Wu Di Zhang Zhizhen6–7(4–7), 3–6Runner-up6.November 19, 2017Dunlop World Challenge ToyotaCarpet Christopher Rungkat Max Purcell Andrew Whittington3–6, 6–2, [8–10]Runner-up7.April 22, 2018China International NanchangClay Christopher Rungkat Gong Mao-Xin Zhang Ze6–3, 6–7(7–9), [7–10]Winner3.July 22, 2018The Hague Open ScheveningenClay Nathaniel Lammons Luis David Martinez Gonçalo Oliveira6–3, 6–7(8–10), [10–5]Runner-up8.August 5, 2018Sopot OpenClay Nathaniel Lammons Mateusz Kowalczyk Szymon Walków6–7(6–8), 3–6Winner4.October 20, 2019Las Vegas ChallengerHard Ruan Roelofse Nathan Pasha Max Schnur2–6, 6–3, [10–8]Runner-up9.November 3, 2019City of Playford Tennis International IIHard Evan King Harri Heliövaara Patrik Niklas-Salminen4–6, 7–6(7–4), [7–10]Winner5.September 25, 2021Bucharest ChallengerClay Hunter Johnson Maximilian Marterer Lukáš Rosol1–6, 6–2, [10–3]Winner6.April 30, 2022Savannah ChallengerClay Treat Huey Wu Tung-lin Zhang Zhizhen7–6(7–3), 6–4Runner-up10.July 16, 2022Georgia's Rome ChallengerHard (i) Reese Stalder Enzo Couacaud Andrew Harris4–6, 2–6Winner7.August 20, 2022República Dominicana OpenClay Reese Stalder Nicolás Barrientos Miguel Ángel Reyes-Varela7–6(7–5), 6–3Winner8.November 5, 2022Keio Challenger YokohamaHard Victor Vlad Cornea Tomoya Fujiwara Masamichi Imamura7–5, 6–3 Runner-up11.February 4, 2023Cleveland OpenHard (i) Reese Stalder Robert Galloway Hans Hach Verdugo6–3, 5–7, [6–10] Runner-up12.February 18, 2023Bahrain Ministry of Interior Tennis ChallengerHard Fernando Romboli Patrik Niklas-Salminen Bart Stevens3–6, 4–6
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