Hugo Gaston

Hugo Gaston is a left-hander from Toulouse, born in 2000, who arrived with junior pedigree — gold at the 2018 Youth Olympics, where he carried France's flag at the opening ceremony — and none of the modern power kit. At 1.73 meters, he was never going to serve his way onto the tour. The game he built instead runs on disguise.

Gaston plays touch-first tennis, the drop shot deployed in volume rather than as a change-up, with lobs stacked behind it and short lefty angles to open the court. Clay gives the drop shot time to die and the lob room to land, so the geometry does its best work on dirt. The serve buys him little, but on clay the rest compensates.

The breakout came at Roland Garros in 2020, where as a wildcard ranked ATP No. 239 he beat former champion Stan Wawrinka in five sets, then pulled third seed Dominic Thiem netward for five more until a break at 4-all in the decider settled it. A year later Gaston ran from the qualifying draw to a Rolex Paris Masters quarterfinal, beating 18-year-old Carlos Alcaraz 6-4, 7-5 en route and breaking into the ATP top 100. His career-high of ATP No. 60 came in August 2024. A tour-level title has not.

As of July 2026, the Frenchman stands at ATP No. 90, 36 spots better than a year earlier despite a 4-8 season, with all four of his wins packed into two events. May brought a five-set win over Gael Monfils at the French Open, closed with a 6-0 fifth set. July brought a three-win run to the Estoril Open semifinals before Luca van Assche ended the run in straight sets. The climb back toward that 2024 peak is the running story.