Bulldogs Primed for Trio of Tournaments

Thursday, November 7

Tallahassee, Fla.

University of Georgia

ITA Sectional Championships

Georgia men's tennis player Ryan Colby during a match in the ITA Southeast Regional on Thursday, Oct. 17, 2024 at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex.

Photo by: Tony Walsh/UGAAA

November 06, 2024 | Men's Tennis

ATHENS, Ga. – Select athletes from the University of Georgia men's tennis team are set to compete in a trio of tournaments this weekend.

ITA South Sectional – Tallahassee, Fla. – Florida State University – FSU Tennis Center
Nov. 7-10, 2024
Daily Match Start Time: 9:00 a.m. E.T.
Tournament Central Page: https://gado.gs/caz
Streaming (Track Tennis): https://gado.gs/cb8
Instagram: @UGATennis | X: @UGATennis | Facebook: UGAMensTennis

ITA Conference Masters Championships – Rome, Ga. – Rome Tennis Center
Nov. 7-10, 2024
Daily Match Start Time: 9:00 a.m. E.T.
Tournament Central Page: https://gado.gs/cb0
Streaming (Play Sight): https://gado.gs/cb7
Live Stats: https://gado.gs/cb6
Instagram: @UGATennis | X: @UGATennis | Facebook: UGAMensTennis

UTR Sports College Circuit – Lawrenceville, Ga. – GGC Tennis Facility
Nov. 8-10, 2024
Daily Match Start Time: TBD
Tournament Central Page: https://gado.gs/cb5
Instagram: @UGATennis | X: @UGATennis | Facebook: UGAMensTennis

*Cyrus Mahjoob is set to compete in the Boca Raton M15 beginning Monday, Nov. 11. More information and tournament updates will be provided accordingly.

BULLDOG BULLETIN
The First Serve: Thomas Paulsell is the lone Bulldog and Southeastern Conference representative in the ITA Conference Masters Championships. Paulsell joins a draw of 32 aiming to earn NCAA Singles Championships qualification. This fall, Paulsell owns a 9-4 record in singles play with five ranked wins. The Seattle native will begin play in the competition on Thursday in the round of 16 as the No. 3 overall seed after receiving a first-round bye.

In the ITA South Sectional, Freddy Blaydes, Ryan Colby, Miguel Perez Peña, Oscar Pinto Sansano and Niels Ratiu will represent Georgia. Pinto Sansano enters as the No. 3 overall seed in the singles draw and will face Damien Nazer (Alabama) in the round of 32 on Thursday. Colby and Ratiu also begin singles play on Thursday against the No. 4 overall seed Mario Martinez Serrano (Mississippi State) and Hugo Coquelin (Vanderbilt), respectively. In doubles, No. 3 overall seed Perez Peña/Pinto Sansano and Blaydes/Ratiu will each face Rihane/Butle (Florida State) and Yunis/van Assendelft (Indiana), respectively.

ITA South Sectional Participants Fall Records:
Freddy Blaydes: 5-3 (singles), 10-3 (doubles – with Ratiu)
Ryan Colby: 8-6 (singles), 7-4 (doubles – with Paulsell)
Miguel Perez Peña: 9-5 (singles), 5-4 (doubles – with Pinto Sansano)
Oscar Pinto Sansano: 6-4 (singles), 5-4 (doubles – with Perez Peña)
Niels Ratiu: 5-3 (singles), 10-3 (doubles – with Blaydes)

Filipe Costa, Parker Jacques and Parker Mariencheck will all compete in the UTR Sports College Circuit. Play begins on Friday morning for the trio with draws to be determined.

UTR Sport College Circuit Participants Fall Records:
Filipe Costa: 2-5 (singles), 2-3 (doubles – with Mahjoob)
Parker Jacques: 4-2 (singles), 0-4 (doubles – with Mariencheck)
Parker Mariencheck: 2-5 (singles), 0-4 (doubles – with Jacques)

Qualifying Queries: Several more qualification bids to the NCAA Singles and Doubles Championships are up for grabs.

In the ITA South Sectional, six singles players will qualify for the championships (four semifinalists and two quarterfinalist playoff winners). More, the top three doubles pairings – champion, finalist and third place – will also earn qualification. Across all four sections, 24 more singles players will earn their bids, and 12 more doubles pairings will secure their spot.

In Rome, at the ITA Conference Masters Championships, the four singles semifinalists of the draw earn November bids. Identical to sectionals, the top three doubles pairings will also qualify.

Miguel Perez Peña is the lone Georgia player to earn qualification thus far to the NCAA Singles Championships. Select Bulldogs will seek out a bid this weekend.

Last Time Out: 10 Bulldogs competed in the ITA Southeast Regional at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex from Oct. 16-20. Miguel Perez Peña highlighted Georgia performance in the regional as he finished 5-0 in the singles draw as the co-champion with Florida State's Jamie Connel.

Ryan Colby enjoyed a successful weekend, as well, grabbing four wins in the singles draw in route to a fourth-place finish at the event. Cyrus Mahjoob also earned four singles wins before falling in the consolation finals to Miami's Nacho Serra Sanchez.

In doubles, Blaydes/Ratiu breezed to the finals of the draw before dropping a tough two-set match to Florida's Nirundorn/Jefferson. In all, three Bulldog pairings reached the quarterfinals of the doubles draw (Blaydes/Ratiu, Perez Peña/Pinto Sansano and Paulsell/Colby).

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 and Colby featured at No. 33, and the Spanish duo of Perez Peña and 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.

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.