Georgia Opens Spring Against Mercer, Presbyterian

Saturday, January 18

Athens, Ga.

12:00 p.m.

University of Georgia

Mercer

2024-25 Georgia men's tennis team.

Photo by: Tony Walsh/UGAAA

January 17, 2025 | Men's Tennis

ATHENS, Ga. – The University of Georgia men's tennis team opens the 2025 dual match season with a double header against Mercer and Presbyterian on Saturday, Jan. 18.

Match 1 – Georgia vs. Mercer
Saturday, Jan. 18, 2025
12:00 p.m. E.T.
Live Steaming/Stats: https://gado.gs/91i
Instagram: @UGATennis | X: @UGATennis | Facebook: UGAMensTennis

Match 2 - Georgia vs. Presbyterian
Saturday, Jan. 18, 2025
4:00 p.m. E.T.
Live Steaming/Stats: https://gado.gs/91i
Instagram: @UGATennis | X: @UGATennis | Facebook: UGAMensTennis

FULL MATCH NOTES PDF AVAILABLE HERE

BULLDOG BULLETIN
The First Serve: The Bulldogs enter the spring season after several strong performances in the fall.

Headlined by Thomas Paulsell's run in the NCAA Singles Championships, three Bulldogs (Paulsell, Perez Peña and Pinto Sansano) qualified for the NCAA individual tournament. Paulsell qualified for the championships by way of finishing as a semi-finalist at the ITA Conference Masters Championships in Rome, Ga. Perez Peña qualified after being crowned co-champion of the ITA Southeast Regional, and Pinto Sansano after winning the 5-8 playoff at the ITA South Sectional.

The Bulldogs culled together 75 singles wins in the fall, 13 of which were over ranked opponents. In doubles, Georgia had 24 total wins - eight ranked. The Bulldogs individual records from the fall are compiled below:

Freddy Blaydes: 5-3
Ryan Colby: 11-7
Filipe Costa: 5-5
Parker Jacques: 6-3
Cyrus Mahjoob: 6-4
Parker Mariencheck: 3-6
Thomas Paulsell: 15-7
Miguel Perez Peña: 9-6
Oscar Pinto Sansano: 9-7
Niels Ratiu: 6-5
Davis Taylor: 2-1

*Arda Azkara, Cooper Johnson and Gabriele Vulpitta are entering their first semester with Georgia

Fresh From the Start: Since 2000, Georgia is 22-3 in season openers. The figure becomes in more dominant when looking at non-power four conferences. Against such, the Bulldogs are 11-0 when playing a non-power four conference in a season opener.

Interestingly, Georgia also opened the 2021 campaign at home against Mercer with the Bulldogs taking the match 7-0.

This year's season opener also marks the first official match of first year head coach Jamie Hunt's tenure as the head coach of Georgia. Although it is a small sample size, new head coaches are 2-0 in season openers.

Last Time Out: The last time a Bulldog took the court was back in November at the NCAA Singles and Doubles Championships. Then No. 14 Thomas Paulsell, on the back of a first round 7-5, 6-4 win over then No. 44 Theo Dean (California) and a second round 6-2, 1-6, 6-1 win over then No. 82 Jamie Connel (Florida State), fell in the round of 16 against then No. 2 Michael Zheng (Columbia). Zheng went on to win the NCAA Singles Championships before entering this spring as the No. 1 ranked player.

To conclude the 2024 spring season, Georgia fell 4-3 to Arizona State in the first round of the NCAA tournament. After clinching the doubles point, the Sun Devils took four of six singles matches to advance to the second round.

Rank the Dawgs: Four Bulldogs were ranked in singles to open the spring dual match season. Leading off, Thomas Paulsell comes in at No. 16, Miguel Perez Peña at No. 44, Ryan Colby at No. 53 and Oscar Pinto Sansano at No. 125.

In doubles, Blaydes/Ratiu remain the highest ranked Bulldogs at No. 13 followed immediately by senior pairing Paulsell/Colby at No. 14 – the duo's highest career ranking. At No. 31, Perez Peña/Pinto Sansano also earned their highest career ranking.

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.