By John Frierson
Staff Writer

Derrick Chen’s first two match points Monday came when the Georgia men’s tennis grad student was leading Florida’s Tanapatt Nirundorn 5-3 in the second set of their singles match at No. 4 singles. His third and fourth match points came in the next game, when Chen was serving for the clinching win in the Bulldogs’ battle against the No. 15-ranked Gators inside the Lindsey Hopkins Indoor Courts.

In the end, after several more match points came and went in the second-set tiebreaker, Chen closed out his win and the second Georgia upset in three days when, leading 10-9, he drilled a backyard return toward the serve-and-volleying Nirundorn, and the Gator’s volley went long. The miss gave Chen a 7-5, 7-6 (11-9) win and Georgia a 4-1 victory.

“It was a pure kind of relief and excitement at the end, just to get it done for my team, the coaches, and everyone involved with Georgia tennis,” said Chen, a transfer from Cal. “I’m super happy that we could get it done. We fought for each other from start to finish.”

Georgia opened SEC play on Saturday afternoon against No. 5 LSU in Henry Feild Stadium, beating the Tigers 4-0. On Monday afternoon against the Gators, with the match indoors due to the cold, the Bulldogs came out strong and took the doubles point, just like they did against LSU. And just like in the win Saturday, Georgia got great singles play from Chen and freshman Noah Johnston.

On Saturday, after Georgia went up 1-0 by winning two doubles matches, the Bulldogs swept the singles at Nos. 4-6, which they call “the pit” because those courts are down below the top three. Chen won in straight sets at No. 4, Johnston did the same at No. 5, and sophomore Gabriele Vulpitta dropped just three games in his win at No. 6.

“Championships are won in the pit, and it’s still one point no matter where you’re playing,” Johnston said.

Against Florida, the Bulldogs again got wins from Johnston and Chen. After the Bulldogs won the doubles point, and Florida tied the match with a victory at No. 6 singles, Johnston took down Florida’s Kevin Edengren, 6-3, 6-4, at No. 5. After taking the opening set, Johnston got behind 1-3 in the second before charging back for the win.

“We’ve talked about it all year, since the fall,” Johnston said of playing with confidence, “and getting that top-5 win definitely expanded that and made that true. I feel like we’re just building off of that to come out here today and still play with even more confidence and just so much belief.”

Georgia then went ahead 3-1 with a win at No. 1 due to Florida’s Henry Jefferson being defaulted against the Bulldogs’ Arda Azkara after he was overruled on a line call by the chair umpire for the fourth time in the match.

Chen’s opponent, Nirundorn, whose older sister Mai played at Georgia and was a member of last season’s ITA National Team Indoor and NCAA title teams, is only 5-foot-8, but he plays and attacks the net like someone a foot taller. You don’t see too many serve-and-volley players these days in college tennis, or on the ATP Tour, which makes Nirundorn a challenging opponent, Chen said.

“Super tricky,” he said. “I’ve played him a couple of times, so I knew what to expect, but it’s still super tricky. He’s a great, great player, so I just had to really focus in on the returns and try to make him play as many balls as I could.”

One of the great and difficult things about tennis is that you have to get yourself across the finish line. There is no clock to run out when you have a lead — you have to make the plays to close out the match. As Nirundorn saved all of those match points, eventually forcing a tiebreaker in the second set, it got into Chen’s head a bit, he said.

“Anyone who says it doesn’t is lying, but you’ve got to try and stay as positive as you can, and keep believing in yourself,” he said. “Even if I’d lost the set, I still had a third set to play, so it’s kind of losing that fear of failure and just going for it.”

Faced with two top-15 opponents to start SEC play, Georgia went for it — and came away with a pair of big wins. The Bulldogs are now up to No. 13 in the latest rankings, one of eight SEC teams in the top 25.

“This is the deepest the SEC has ever been,” head coach Jamie Hunt said. “From top to bottom, every match is going to be tough, and every match is an opportunity. We’ve just got to compete really hard and compete together. It’s just about competing hard and competing together, and having poise when those big moments come.

“I think we showed that Saturday and today. When those big moments are coming, we’re doing a really good job of handling them with poise and confidence, and with a really clear vision for how we want to play.”

The Bulldogs are back in action Friday at No. 14 Texas A&M.

Assistant Sports Communications Director 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.