Garcia-Lopez & Gaubas: The Player-Coach Duo Turned Doubles Partners

For any teen looking to make progress on the ATP Challenger Tour, being coached by a former Top-25 player is a good place to start.

Lithuanian Vilius Gaubas is just getting his pro career started. The 18-year-old is working with former World No. 23 Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, who Gaubas even convinced to play doubles with him at the 2022 Vilnius Challenger.

This week, the home hope Gaubas pushed World No. 168 Elias Ymer to a three-set battle at the Vitas Gerulaitis Cup. Despite the loss, the teenager, who is No. 760 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings, is drawing on positives from Tuesday’’s performance and is keeping his sights on a strong showing in 2023.

ATPTour.com spoke with Gaubas and Garcia-Lopez to learn more about their partnership, the teen’s background, and the Spaniard’s memories of his early days on the Challenger Tour.

Vilius, how did you meet Guillermo?
Gaubas: We met maybe three years ago. I was practising with a coach that Guillermo knows and a few days later I got to practise with Guillermo in Alicante, Spain.

Tell me about the experience of playing doubles together at the 2022 Vilnius Open.
Garcia-Lopez: It was my last ATP match. Vilius wanted to play with me in doubles. I said, ‘Why not?’ We got a wild card here. I can still play a little bit of doubles, I’m still in good shape.

How was that experience?
Gaubas: It was good. I got to play with my coach, who also made the US Open doubles final [2016].

What does the next few months hold for you guys?
Garcia-Lopez: We are planning to play Challengers in Italy. We are going to start to play on clay after this week. Before that Challenger, we will play one ITF Future event, also in Italy. He didn’t play on clay the past three or four months, so he has to adapt to the clay first. We want to improve in all areas. Technique, tactics, of course ranking, and everything.

A tough match this week against Elias Ymer. What positives are you drawing from that three-setter?
Gaubas: I think it was a positive match, I was playing well. I think in the end it was just a lack of experience against a player who has much more experience and a better ranking.

Vilius Gaubas in action at the 2023 Vilnius Challenger. Credit: Saulius Čirba

How did you start playing tennis?
Gaubas: I started in a small city, Siauliai, three hours from Vilnius. I was maybe four years old. My parents brought me to it and I remember I was playing on carpet courts with small plastic racquets.

Guillermo, what’s the biggest difference going from an ATP player to a coach?
Garcia-Lopez: It’s much different. Now, I’m totally outside the court. Everything is more clear and easy. The player has the difficult task.

What are your best memories of playing on the Challenger Tour?
Garcia-Lopez: My first final in Seville. I made it past the qualifying, tough matches against Spanish players on clay courts. That was probably my best memory from the Challengers. I played really good, I believed I could play that kind of level. I didn’t win the tournament but after that I was growing up and those kind of tournaments give you a lot of confidence.

Vilius, what’s it like to make the step from juniors to the Challenger level?
Gaubas: I think the biggest thing is the mental part. In juniors, there’s many players who are a rollercoaster mentally. In Challengers, players are more solid and mentally stable. Tennis-wise, there’s some difference but not as much as mentally.

What are your memories of watching tennis as a kid? Did you idolise any player?
Gaubas: I always enjoyed watching Roland Garros and the clay-court season. When Nadal, Djokovic, and Federer were playing against each other, those were great, long matches. Dominic Thiem and Casper Ruud are also some of my favourite players.

Talk about your experience as a ballboy.
Gaubas: It was one of the Davis Cups. Lithuania was playing Cyprus. There was a mini-tennis tournament that they did for small kids and the winner got to play a mini-tennis match with Ricardas Berankis. I won the tournament and I got to play with Berankis. It was a great time. Now, I’m playing the same tournament [2023 Vilnius Challenger] as him.

Vilius Gaubas (left) and Ricardas Berankis at the 2013 Davis Cup tie against Cyprus.

What do you enjoy doing in your free time?
Gaubas: I like to mountain bike. Especially going alone with music on the sunny days in Alicante, it’s fun.

Very cool player/coach partnership 🤝

Learn more about how 18-year-old Lithuanian Vilius Gaubas linked up with the former ATP top 25 Spaniard Guillermo Garcia-Lopez ✔️#ATPChallenger pic.twitter.com/ggomn5ASOv

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