University of Georgia Athletics
2007: Perfection And Redemption
May 20, 2017 | Men's Tennis
It's been 10 years now since a Georgia men's tennis team led by one of the greatest players in the program's rich history, John Isner, went undefeated in 2007.
May 20, 2017
By John Frierson
UGAAA Staff Writer
It's been 10 years now since a Georgia men's tennis team led by one of the greatest players in the program's rich history, John Isner, went undefeated in 2007. The Bulldogs, clipped at the finish line the year before and still pretty darn ticked off about it, thoroughly dominated all of college tennis that spring.
"You can't talk about '07 without talking about '06," Georgia coach Manuel Diaz said.
Here's 2006 in a nutshell: Isner was great, the Bulldogs were great and they reached the finals of the NCAA Championships in Palo Alto, Calif., with a record of 30-0. But in the national championship match against Pepperdine, a team the Dogs had defeated 4-0 earlier in the season, the Waves crashed down on Georgia, winning 4-2.
Georgia had lost to injury one of its key players, Strahinja "Stracky" Bobusic, earlier in the tournament, which affected the Dogs' singles and doubles lineups. There was an opening for the first time all year and Pepperdine took advantage of it.
"We lose in the finals and our team was destroyed," Diaz said. "I think that team took about three months and we didn't talk to each other; we went off to sulk and lick our wounds, and it was devastating, like nothing I have ever seen or experienced.
"But when we came back in the fall, I am telling you, we had the rage. That team did not take a minute off practice, it did not take a day off -- they were so locked in on making sure they were going to do everything in their power to make sure they just obliterated the competition that year."
And the Bulldogs did.
"We weren't cocky, by any means, but we were the best; in the preseason the best and we knew we were the best team," Isner said. "We held ourselves accountable, we held ourselves to a very high standard. There were never any dips in the season; our main focus was to win it all in front of our home crowd in Athens. We wanted that really badly."
Georgia's first six matches in 2007 were shutouts, followed by a 4-2 win over Virginia in the semifinals of the USTA/ITA National Team Indoor Championships. Then came four more shutouts, including a 4-0 win over Ohio State to win the Indoor title.
By the time the NCAAs arrived, Georgia was 26-0 with 17 shutouts. Isner was the senior leader, the towering 6-foot-10 figure who loved competing for the Georgia Bulldogs as much as any UGA athlete ever.
"It all led with John, he drove the whole thing, and he was very motivated for us to do well," said Jamie Hunt, a freshman on the 2007 team and now the associate head coach at Vanderbilt. "We all just kind of followed suit and there was an edge to us and we wanted to be the best. And we went out and did it."
With the NCAAs back in Athens, it was a perfect situation: Isner would finish off his great career in front of the home crowd that cheered his every move and Georgia could fulfill the dreams that were crushed the year before at Stanford.
Isner said he didn't even think about going pro after his junior year, though he figured he was for the first time good enough to give it a shot. He knew there was work still to be done with the Dogs and other than the crushing loss to Pepperdine he was enjoying the heck out of his time at Georgia.
"I had one more year and I wanted to stick it out," he said. "It pretty much came down to wanting to spend another year in Athens and of course be a part of the NCAA tournament."
Georgia's NCAA tournament run began with four straight 4-0 wins, over Fairleigh Dickinson, Auburn, Florida and UCLA. Then came Virginia in the semifinals, and a 4-1 win. In the final it was Georgia versus Illinois, which went undefeated and won the NCAA title in 2003.
The Dogs narrowly won the doubles point, a staple of the team's success all season.
"One of the awesome stats was, when we played our full doubles lineup we were 31-0," Hunt said. The only time Georgia lost the doubles point was on senior day against Tennessee, when the lineups were shuffled. "That was a bad thing for them because we came out and just murdered them in singles."
Once Georgia had the doubles point, the Dogs were going to be almost impossible to beat. In singles, Nate Schnugg put Georgia up 2-0 with a 6-4, 6-1 win at No. 5. Meanwhile, on court 1, a real heavyweight battle was happening.
Isner was at No. 1 for Georgia, of course, and ranked No. 1. Playing No. 1 for Illinois, and ranked No. 5, was Kevin Anderson, the 6-8 South African. College tennis hasn't seen a matchup quite like it since: Isner a four-year star for the Dogs, Anderson in his three-year run with the Illini and then the two tall talents worked their way to become mainstays in the top 20 years later.
After spending most of this decade ranked in the top 20, including some stops in the top 10 in 2014, the 24th-ranked Isner this week at the Italian Open in Rome, beat No. 3 Stan Wawrinka and No. 8 Marin Cilic to reach the semifinals. Anderson spent most of 2013-15 in the top 20, before injuries derailed his 2016 -- he's presently ranked No. 63.
In the national championship match, Isner bested Anderson 6-1, 7-6, putting the Dogs up 3-0. Matic Omerzel wrapped up the NCAA title and the undefeated season by winning at No. 4, 7-6, 6-1.
"I remember when I was getting recruited, and you see the videos and you see the pictures (of Georgia in the NCAAs in Athens) -- you just want to be a part of that," Isner said. "You want to be on those teams playing in Athens, where everyone is cheering you on. To have that finally happen, to have us finally be in that situation, it was pretty surreal, but we all handled it really well."
The tournament was far from over for Isner, the No. 1 seed in singles and doubles (with partner Luis Flores). Isner and Flores reached the quarterfinals of the doubles before falling. In singles, Isner advanced all the way to the finals.
Isner and Virginia's Somdev Devvarman had their share of battles in college, and in the singles title match it was Devvarman that prevailed, 7-6, 4-6, 7-6.
"Still to this day it's one of the toughest losses I've ever been a part of," Isner said.
But it had a silver lining. As an American, Isner would have received a wild card into the U.S. Open that August. By not winning the NCAA singles title, Isner had to go earn a spot in the draw against the pros, which he did.
After turning pro, Isner won a couple of lower-level events and then reached the finals of the ATP event in Washington, D.C., falling to Andy Roddick. A month later, Isner won two matches in New York before losing to Roger Federer in four sets in Arthur Ashe Stadium.
"(Losing to Devvarman) made me work harder and I think it made me even more determined to do well professionally," Isner said. "I think that's a big reason why I did so well that summer. I really had earn it."
In Isner's final two seasons Georgia had a record of 62-1, not that the Dogs fell apart without him and Omerzel in the lineup anymore. In 2008, Georgia went 27-3 and won a second straight NCAA title.
John Frierson is the staff writer for the UGA Athletic Association and curator of the ITA Men's Tennis Hall of Fame. You can find his work at: Frierson Files. He's also on Twitter: @FriersonFiles and @ITAHallofFame.
