Georgia Improves To 7-0 In SEC Play

Saturday, March 25

Athens, Ga.

5:00 PM

University of Georgia

Alabama

March 25, 2017 | Men's Tennis

March 25, 2017

Georgia is now 7-0 in SEC play as we interviewed Coach Manuel Diaz after the win.

Final Stats

ATHENS, Ga. - The University of Georgia men's tennis team used a dominating performance against Alabama en route to its eighth win in the last nine matches with a 7-0 victory on Saturday.

A crowd of 1,626 spectators at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex watched as Georgia won at the first and third doubles courts, before taking straight-set victories at five of the six singles positions to secure the win.

Georgia, now 11-6 overall, 7-0 in the SEC, moves its home win streak in league play to 29-straight matches, dating back to 2012. The Bulldogs have also won 21 consecutive regular season contests against conference foes.

"Our team is really starting to come along right now," head coach Manuel Diaz said. "We played better in doubles tonight and then came out and looked really strong on the singles courts. There are still some areas for improvement but we are continuing to make progress as we hit the stretch run of conference play."

The two teams split the No. 1 and 2 doubles courts, with eighth-ranked Jan Zielinski and Robert Loeb taking a 6-4 win, while the 48^th-ranked pair of Nathan Ponwith and Emil Reinberg fell, 6-4.

It would come down to Wayne Montgomery and Walker Duncan at the third position, where the Bulldog tandem was locked in a tight match. The contest went into a tiebreaker with the Georgia pair staking claim to an early 3-0 lead. Alabama's Edson Ortiz and Zhe Zhou battled back to tie it at 3-3 and then 5-5.

Duncan and Montgomery finally pulled ahead for good, taking a 7-6 (8) win to give Georgia the 1-0 advantage following doubles play.

The Bulldogs won the first set on five of six singles courts and looked impressive from the outset. Loeb was the first winner for Georgia, taking a 6-1, 6-2 triumph over Zhou at No. 6.

Up 2-0, Reinberg struck next for the Bulldogs. He gave his team a 3-0 advantage with a 6-3, 6-0 victory against Ortiz.

The match-clincher came from Zielinski at the No. 4 court, where he downed Crimson Tide counterpart Alexey Nesterov, 6-4, 6-2.

With the match in-hand, the two teams played it out. Ponwith, the Bulldog freshman who played at the No. 1 court for the second-straight match, looked just as strong as he did on Thursday. This time, he took down 35th-ranked Mazen Osama, 6-4, 6-3 to improve to 10-3 in dual-match play.

Georgia now heads to Starkville, Miss., to take on 15^th-ranked Mississippi State on Thursday at 4 p.m. ET/ 3 p.m. CT.

Tennis Match Results
Alabama vs Georgia
March 25, 2017 at Athens, Ga.
(Dan Magill Tennis Complex)

#14 Georgia 7, Alabama 0

Singles Results
1. Nathan Ponwith (UGA) def. #35 Mazen Osama (UA) 6-4, 6-3
2. #32 Wayne Montgomery (UGA) def. #105 Thibault Cancel (UA) 3-6, 6-2, 1-0 (10-8)
3. #65 Emil Reinberg (UGA) def. Edison Ortiz (UA) 6-3, 6-0
4. Jan Zielinski (UGA) def. Alexey Nesterov (UA) 6-4, 6-2
5. Walker Duncan (UGA) def. Spencer Richey (UA) 6-1, 6-4
6. Robert Loeb (UGA) def. Zhe Zhou (UA) 6-1, 6-2

Doubles Results
1. #8 Jan Zielinski/Robert Loeb (UGA) def. #40 Mazen Osama/Spencer Richey (UA) 6-4
2. Thibault Cancel/Alexey Nesterov (UA) def. #48 Nathan Ponwith/Emil Reinberg (UGA) 6-4
3. Wayne Montgomery/Walker Duncan (UGA) def. Edison Ortiz/Zhe Zhou (UA) 7-6 (10-8)