Rome native Colt Gaston is now officially among the top 500 tennis players in the world.

As of Sunday, Gaston was ranked 475 in the world in the Association of Tennis Professionals offical rankings.

Rankings are an integral part of the ATP’s tournament system, allowing players to qualify for top tournaments and deciding seedings at those tournaments.

Gaston said breaking the top 500 opens a lot of door for him.

“First, it allows you to get into the bigger tournaments, such as the one I’m playing this week,” he said of the $50,000 Challenger event in Champaign, Illinois. 

“For me, breaking into the top 500 was one of the goals I set for myself about a year ago when I got on the tour full time.  To achieve that goal in less than a year is something I wasn’t expecting.  But when it did, I felt like all the hard work and training has paid off.  It has also motivated me to accomplish my overall goal of breaking into the top 100.”

This week’s event in Illinois is Gaston’s last tournament for the year. His partner is world No. 362, Ryan Harrison, who has recorded wins over such players as Taylor Dent and Michael Berrer.

“I am very excited about playing with Ryan this week and hopefully we can make something happen (today) when we play the No. 1 seeds, Rajeev Ram, who is 35 in the world, and David Martin, who is ranked 104.”

A graduate of Rome High School in 2003, Gaston was All American at Louisiana State University and finished No. 3 in the college doubles rankings when he graduated in 2007.