Feb. 2, 2008

From Georgia Athletics

ATHENS, Ga. --- The No. 2-ranked University of Georgia men's tennis team (3-0) won its first home match of the season, defeating East Tennessee State (4-2) Saturday in Athens by a 6-1 score. The Bulldogs lost the doubles point for the first time this season, but easily overcame the 1-0 deficit with six singles wins. The match was clinched by No. 4-ranked senior captain Travis Helgeson (Overland Park, Kan.) as he battled to a three-set win over No. 49-ranked Enrique Olivares, 6-4, 6-7(6), 6-1.

"I am definitely disappointed in the way we played doubles but we responded well in singles," said Georgia head coach Manuel Diaz. "East Tennessee State has a darn good team and they seem to get better every
year. I would not be surprised at all if they were a top-20 team in the near future."

Sophomore Christian Vitulli (Mombasa, Kenya) erased the early ETSU advantage with a straight-set win at the No. 4 singles position as he took down Oscar Posada, 6-4, 6-1. Shortly thereafter, sophomore Nate
Schnugg (Meford, Ore.) gave the Bulldogs a lead they would never relinquish, as he topped Predrag Burmazovic, 6-3, 6-4 to push the match score to 2-1 in Georgia's favor. Next to finish was sophomore Jamie Hunt (San Antonio, Texas) as he defeated Sebastian Serrano, 6-3, 7-5, to put the Dogs up 3-1 and set Helgeson up for the match-clinching win.

With the match already clinched in the Bulldogs' favor, freshman Javier Garrapiz (Huesca, Spain) made it a 5-1 Georgia advantage as he eased past Alex Ahlgren, 6-1, 6-2. Georgia picked up the final point of the
match as freshman Drake Bernstein (Winder, Ga.) battled back from a huge hole to overtake Daniel Isaza. After losing the first set 6-1, Bernstein was down 5-2 in the second with Isaza serving for the match and leading 30-0. Bernstein found a way to keep himself in the match, winning four straight games to take a 6-5 lead. Isaza held serve to push it to a set tiebreaker, which Bernstein won 7-2. Because the match had already been clinched, the competitors played a super-tiebreaker to decide the match in lieu of a third set. Down 5-2 in the superbreaker, Bernstein rallied again to go tie it up at 5-5, then went on to win 10-6, for a final score of 1-6, 7-6(2), 1-0 (10-6).

In doubles play, Georgia began the match with a win as Hunt and Schnugg took down Ahlgren and Posada, 8-5. ETSU then pulled even as 33rd-ranked Olivares and Serrano topped Bernstein and Helgeson, 8-4. With the doubles point hinging on the result from the No. 3 spot, Garrapiz and Vitulli found themselves in position to give Georgia the overall lead as they held a 7-5 advantage. However, the Bulldog duo was unable to close out the match and took advantage of the Bulldogs' slip. The Bucs went on to win the next four games to take a 9-7 victory and capture the point.

"We were up a couple breaks at No. 3 but lost and at No. 2 we were up early then lost four or five straight services," said Diaz. "Our guys know that is unacceptable. We stopped being aggressive, and when we do
that, we are very average in our doubles play. Obviously going into the ITA National Indoors we need to improve on our doubles. Our No. 1 team is playing great and our No. 3 guys were playing very well until today. We understand we have to work on a few things and we will just try to stay aggressive and play our game."

Georgia is back in action Friday, Feb. 2, as the Bulldogs host Georgia State at 2:30 p.m. at the Lindsey Hopkins Indoor Courts.