Bulldogs Set for NCAA Individual Championships

Oscar Pinto Sansano during an ITA Southeast Regional singles match at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex on Thursday, Oct. 17, 2024.

Photo by: Tony Walsh/UGAAA

November 18, 2024 | Men's Tennis

Waco, Texas – Select Bulldogs will begin play in the NCAA Singles and Doubles Championships hosted by Baylor University from Tuesday, Nov. 19 through Sunday, Nov. 24. at the Hurd Tennis Center.

NCAA Singles and Doubles Championships – Waco, Texas – Hurd Tennis Center
Tuesday, Nov. 19 – Sunday, Nov. 24, 2024
Match Start Time: 9:00 a.m. C.T.
Tournament Central Page: https://gado.gs/cd4
Streaming: ESPN+ (Supported by Cracked Racquets)
Live Video: https://gado.gs/cd5
Live Stats: https://gado.gs/cd6
Instagram: @UGATennis | X: @UGATennis | Facebook: UGAMensTennis

BULLDOG BULLETIN
The First Serve: Thomas Paulsell, Miguel Perez Peña and Oscar Pinto Sansano are all set to feature in the singles draw beginning on Tuesday.

Perez Peña was the first of the three to earn his qualification into the championships. The senior posted a 5-0 record in singles play during the ITA Southeast Regional at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex from Oct. 16-20 and was crowned the co-champion alongside Florida State's Jamie Connel.

Paulsell reached the semifinals of the ITA Conference Masters Championships in Rome, Ga. to book his trip to Waco and enters the tournament as a 9-16 seed. Pinto Sansano won his 5-8 playoff over Andrii Zimnokh (Notre Dame) at the ITA South Sectional hosted by Florida State University to earn his spot in the competition.

NCAA Singles and Championships Participants Fall Records:
Thomas Paulsell: 11-5
Miguel Perez Peña: 9-5
Oscar Pinto Sansano: 9-5

Freddy Blaydes and Niels Ratiu are the first alternates in the doubles competition with the first round of play set to commence on Thursday. The duo is 10-5 this fall.

Championship Context: The singles bracket welcomes a field of 64 players across NCAA Division I men's tennis programs. Qualification for this year's championships was earned through a variety of entry methods. Participants received their bids by their finishes at the ITA All-American Championships, ITA Regionals, ITA Conference Masters Championships or the ITA Sectionals.

9-16 Thomas Paulsell is set to face Theo Dean (California) in the first round of play at 11:30 a.m. C.T. Also in the opening round, Miguel Perez Peña will square off with Dhakshineswar Suresh (Wake Forest) at 9 a.m. C.T., and Oscar Pinto Sansano is matched up against 9-16 Pedro Vives (Texas Christian) at 12:30 p.m. C.T.

Georgia men's tennis has five NCAA Singles Championships from three different former players.

1985: Mikael Pernfors
1986: Mikael Pernfors
2001: Matias Boeker
2002: Matias Boeker
2022: Ethan Quinn

On the doubles side, there is a field of 32, and three different Bulldog pairings have taken home the crown.

1983: Ola Malmqvist/Allen Miller
2001: Matias Boeker/Travis Parrott
2005: John Isner/Antonio Ruiz

Prior to this year's championships, the NCAA Singles and Doubles Championships were traditionally held in the spring following the NCAA Team Championships. Under a two-year pilot format introduced by the NCAA, the individual competitions were moved to the fall portion of the collegiate tennis calendar.

Last Time Out: Several Bulldogs were active across the Southeast leading into the NCAA Singles and Doubles Championships.

Thomas Paulsell featured in the ITA Conference Masters Championships and advanced to the semifinals of the singles draw. In the ITA South Sectional, Ryan Colby, Oscar Pinto Sansano and Niels Ratiu are featured in the singles competition while Blaydes/Ratiu and Perez Peña/Pinto Sansano featured in the doubles draw. Filipe Costa, Parker Jacques and Parker Mariencheck all represented the Bulldogs in the UTR Sports College Circuit – GGC.

Davis Taylor and Aidan Atwood also featured in the UTR Sports College Circuit – GGC as independents.

Rank the Dawgs: Four Bulldogs were ranked in the top 100 of the preseason ITA singles rankings to begin the fall season. Thomas Paulsell leads the group with a career-best and team-high No. 14 position in the first edition. Ryan Colby settles in at No. 28 with Miguel Perez Peña and Oscar Pinto Sansano following just behind at No. 64 and No. 86, respectively.

In the doubles rankings, Freddy Blaydes and Niels Ratiu both earned a career-high ranking of No. 2. Paulsell/Colby featured at No. 33, and the Spanish duo of Perez Peña/Pinto Sansano come in at No. 44.

New Faces, New Places: The Bulldogs have welcomed three new faces to Athens for the 2024-25 season.

Freshman Aidan Atwood and VCU transfer Oscar Pinto Sansano will join the ranks for the fall campaign. Atwood, a five-star recruit from Suwanee, Ga., held a career-best ITF Junior world ranking of 2,588 and was named the Forsyth County News Boys Tennis Player of the Year in 2022. Pinto Sansano began his collegiate career at Arkansas and compiled a 7-14 singles dual match record before spending transferring to VCU for two seasons. With VCU, Pinto Sansano held a 20-5 overall singles dual match record and was ranked as high as No. 31 in ITA doubles ranking. Prior to his collegiate career, he was regarded as the No. 53 junior in UTR world rankings.

In January, Grand Slam champion Gabriele Vulpitta will arrive in Athens for the 2025 SEC dual-match conference season and beyond. Vulpitta, a native of Rome, Italy, boasts an impressive resume with a junior doubles title at Wimbledon, as well as finishing as a 2023 junior doubles Roland Garros finalist. He also held career-high ATP rankings of No. 747 in doubles and No. 1168 in singles with a Universal Tennis Rating of 13.23. More, New Mexico transfer Arda Azkara is set to don the red and black beginning in the spring. Azkara compiled 50 singles wins with the Lobos and was named the Mountain West Co-Freshman of the Year in 2022. After his sophomore and junior seasons, Azkara became the first Mountain West player to earn back-to-back Player of the Year honors since Oliver Maiberger of San Diego State University from 2001-2003. The Turkish native recorded an 11-0 record at No. 1 singles for the Lobos last season and holds a 13.15 Universal Tennis Rating. Georgia native Cooper Johnson will join the Bulldogs in January. Johnson holds career-high recruiting rankings of No. 1 in the state of Georgia and No. 21 nationally. He holds a Universal Tennis Rating of 11.9 with a 3-2 record against other five-star recruits. Johnson also holds an ITF junior ranking of 3,157 and an ITF World Tennis Number of 16.5

Blue-chip recruit and Anderson, S.C. native Noah Johnston signed with Georgia for the fall of 2025, head coach Jamie Hunt announced on Tuesday, Nov. 12. The former No. 1 overall recruit in the nation holds a 5-5 record against fellow blue-chip prospects and a career-high ITF junior ranking of 50. Johnston has recent singles and doubles wins at the J200 Tampico, a doubles championship at the J300 Barranquilla, and a doubles championship at the J300 San Jose while also featuring in the junior doubles draw of the 144^th edition of the U.S. Open.

Head Coach Jamie Hunt: Jamie Hunt, who was part of Georgia's 2007 and 2008 NCAA National Championship teams as a player and served seven years on the Georgia men's tennis staff as an associate head coach, was tabbed to lead the Bulldogs' men's tennis program on Feb. 27, 2024.

Since returning to Athens in 2017, Hunt has twice been named the ITA Southeast Region Coach of the Year and helped the Bulldogs capture the 2023 SEC Championship with a perfect league record.

Hunt played for Coach Diaz from 2007-2010 and helped lead Georgia to a pair of national championships. Following his playing career, Hunt made his way to Nashville to become an assistant coach at Vanderbilt.

Hunt was a star tennis player and leader for the Bulldogs' tennis program from 2007 through 2010. His 116 singles wins rank 12th all-time in school history for the four-time All-SEC selection, while his combined singles and doubles record of 238-80 ranks third in the Georgia record book.

Hunt and his wife Kyndal Edwards Hunt met as seniors at the University of Georgia and have five children: Daughter Blakely, son Hayes, twins -- daughter Macy and son Hudson -- and son Ford.

Keep up with all the latest news and information on the Bulldogs by following UGA men's tennis on social media on X and Instagram @UGATennis, on Facebook @UGAMensTennis and on the web at GeorgiaDogs.com.