ATHENS—–The Georgia women’s tennis program announced on Wednesday the signing of Lourdes Carle (pronounced Lord-ES CAR-lay) to a national letter of intent to attend UGA and compete with the Bulldogs next season.

A native of Daireaux, Argentina, she has been ranked as high as the No. 9 junior in the world, according to the International Tennis Federation (ITF) rankings. The daughter of Jorge and Claudia Carle, she has competed in all four junior Grand Slam tournaments (Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon and US Open). Carle reached the semifinals of the US Open Juniors, and in the event, she posted wins over the No. 3, 8 and 9 ranked juniors in the world. Also, she advanced to the semifinals of the ITF Junior Masters from group play. During her career, she achieved a World Tennis Association (WTA) ranking of 633 after playing in only seven tournaments. Carle’s career highlights include winning a pair of ITF Professional Circuit events and reaching the finals of another.

“We’re thrilled that Lourdes will be joining our program next year, and she will arrive in Athens as one of the top junior players in the world,” said Georgia head coach Jeff Wallace. “She has a bright future at UGA and beyond.”

During her junior career, Carle has represented Argentina at the Junior Fed Cup in Madrid, Spain, and she has been selected to compete as part of an ITF 18 & under team that toured Europe in the summer of 2016. They played in Italy, France and England including at famous venues like Roland Garros (site of the French Open) and at Wimbledon. The squad was coached by Ivan Molina, Roberta Burzagli and Dermot Sweeney. Currently, she is coached by Carlos Cobos.

I’m very excited to be a part of the Bulldog family,” said Carle. “The team atmosphere at Georgia is amazing, and I can’t wait to start a new chapter of my life in Athens! Go Dawgs!”