GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Select athletes from the University of Georgia men’s tennis team are set to compete in the ITA Southeast Regional hosted by the University of Florida starting this week at the Alfred A. Ring Tennis Complex. 
 
ITA SOUTHEAST REGIONAL
Wednesday, Oct. 8 – Monday, Oct. 13
Alfred A. Ring Tennis Complex – Gainesville, Florida
Draws/Results: https://gado.gs/dkb
Live Streaming (Courts 1-6): TBA
Instagram: @UGATennis | X: @UGATennis | Facebook: UGAMensTennis
 
BULLDOG BULLETIN
Tournament Information:
• The ITA Southeast Regional is one of 13 sites that make up the ITA Division 1 Regional 
Championships featuring athletes from Division 1 programs in Georgia and Florida. 
• Acting as qualifier for the NCAA Singles and Doubles tournament in November, the two singles finalists and the doubles champion in each region will qualify for NCAAs.
• All seven Bulldogs on the roster will feature in this year’s Regional in Gainesville.
• Last year, former Bulldog Miguel Perez Peña was crowned co-champion at the ITA Southeast Regional and qualified for the NCAA Singles Tournament. More, it marked his second 
consecutive year as the champion of the event and the third consecutive year that a Bulldog took home the singles championship.
• The Southeast Regional has a singles draw size of 64 in the main draw with a minimum of 64 in qualifying, and for doubles, the main draw will have 32 pairings with a minimum of 32 in qualifying.
• Since 2010, 10 Bulldogs have been crowned champions in either the singles or doubles draws at the event. A list is compiled below:
 
2010: Wil Spencer – Singles
2013: Nathan Pasha – Singles
2014: Austin Smith – Singles
2017: Walker Duncan – Singles
2017: Robert Loeb/Jan Zielinski – Doubles
2018: Jan Zielinski – Singles
2022: Blake Croyder – Singles
2023: Miguel Perez Peña – Singles
2024: Miguel Perez Peña – Singles (Co-Champion)
*In 2019, Erik Grevelius won the singles consolation draw
 
Last Time Out
• Six Bulldogs featured in the last two tournaments – the Carolina Classic and ITA All-American Championships.
• At the Carolina Classic, Cooper Johnson and Noah Johnston were finalists of their doubles flight while Johnston won his singles flight.
• At ITA All-Americans, Derrick Chen, Santi Giamichelle and Gabry Vulpitta all began their singles campaigns in pre-qualifying, and Will Jansen began in qualifying. Giamichelle advanced into the main draw of the competition and reached the round of 16 on the back of seven straight wins including four ranked victories. No. 84 Chen/Giamichelle also advanced into the main draw in doubles. All told in Tulsa, Georgia players accounted for 16 singles and doubles wins combined during the tournament.
 
New Faces, New Places:
• Georgia welcomed four new members to the Bulldog men’s tennis family this fall including three transfers – Derrick Chen, Santi Giamichelle and Will Jansen – as well as one new freshman, Noah Johnston. This year’s transfer class was ranked No. 4 nationally and No. 1 in the SEC by College Tennis Nation.
• Graduate Derrick Chen arrives from California-Berkeley. Over the course of four seasons with the Bears, Chen was a two-time ITA Scholar-Athlete and recorded over 70 combined singles and doubles wins.
• Senior Santi Giamichelle made two stops before arriving in Athens after spending his freshman year at UT-Arlington and then two years at the University of Central Florida. The Argentine international has over 50 career singles and doubles wins, respectively.
• Senior Will Jansen also featured for two programs before landing with the Bulldogs featuring for the North Carolina Tar Heels during his freshman and sophomore seasons and then last year with Ohio State. The 2025 ITA Doubles All-American begins his career as a Bulldog with a career-high singles ranking of No. 35 and 13 combined singles and doubles ranked wins.
• Freshman Noah Johnston embarks on his college journey on the back of two junior Grand Slam doubles finals appearance in this year’s U.S. Open and Roland Garros. He holds a career-high ITF Juniors Ranking of No. 18 and boasts a current 13.26 UTR.
 
Rank the Dawgs:
• Four Bulldogs received preseason nods in the ITA singles and doubles rankings.
• In singles, graduate Arda Azkara came in at No. 80 and Jansen came in at No. 103. Azkara’s ranking is his highest singles rankings as a Bulldog and just two spots behind his career-high singles ranking of No. 78.
• For doubles, Azkara/Jansen lead off Georgia in the rankings at No. 30. Transfers Chen and Giamichelle feature, as well, at No. 84.
 
Fall Forecast:
• The Dawgs are slated to compete in four ITA tournaments throughout the fall, two regional showcase events and two ATP Challengers this fall before ending the fall campaign with the NCAA Singles and Doubles Tournament.
• First up, Chen and Giamichelle featured in the Battle in the Bay Classic in San Francisco, Calif. before the Carolina Classic rolled around.
• The final three events all act as NCAA Singles and Doubles Tournament qualifiers. 
• The two singles finalists and the doubles champion at the ITA Southeast Regional will seal their ticket to Orlando. At the ITA South Sectional, six singles and three doubles will qualify, and at the ITA Conference Masters, four singles and three doubles will earn their berth.
• Select Georgia men’s tennis players will take part in the two ATP Challenger events in Tiburon, Calif. and Fairfield, Calif.
 
Dawgs Around the Globe:
• In September, graduate Arda Azkara represented his nation, Turkey, in a Davis Cup World Group 1 tie against Serbia. Azkara took his singles match over – at the time – ATP No. 461 Branko Djuric in the tie. More, over the summer, Azkara took home two 15K titles.
• This past summer, several former Dawgs including Ethan Quinn, Jan Zielinski, Sadio Doumbia and Hamish Stewart took part in the three summer grand slams. At Roland Garros, Quinn reached the round of 32 – his deepest run as a professional in a grand slam event. Zielinski reached the round of 16 at the U.S. Open in doubles, and Doumbia reached the doubles quarterfinals in the same competition.
• Freshman Noah Johnston had a successful summer reaching two junior grand slam doubles finals at Roland Garros and the U.S. Open.
 
Hosts with the Most:
• Next spring, NCAA Tennis returns to Athens as the University of Georgia was selected to host the NCAA Division 1 Men’s and Women’s Tennis Tournaments.
• The Bulldogs last hosted the NCAA tennis tournament in 2017. More, the Dan Magill Tennis Complex has hosted the event on 29 occasions – the most frequented site location.
• On top of hosting the team tournament in 2026, Georgia will also host the 2026 NCAA Singles and Doubles Tournament and the 2027 NCAA Tournament.
• Last year, three Dawgs featured in the NCAA Singles Tournament. Former Bulldogs Miguel Perez Peña and Oscar Pinto Sansano fell in the first round of the event, and Thomas Paulsell reached the round of 16 becoming the program’s 55^th All-American.
 
Head Coach Jamie Hunt
• Jamie Hunt, now in his second year as the head coach, 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. 
• 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.