The 13th-ranked Georgia men’s tennis team will travel to Knoxville, Tenn. this weekend for the 2017 SEC Tournament.
The Bulldogs (15-7, 11-1 SEC) are the No. 2 seed after sharing the regular-season title with Texas A&M and will play in the quarterfinals on Friday at noon ET in their first match of the tournament. 7th-seeded Arkansas and 10th-seeded LSU will play Thursday, and the winner between the Razorbacks and Tigers will represent Georgia’s opponent in the quarterfinals. The Bulldogs have won nine SEC Tournament titles in history, with the most recent crown coming in 2013.
In the regular season, the Bulldogs got the better of both Arkansas and LSU. On March 12, Georgia took down the Razorbacks 4-3 after facing a 3-2 deficit. Robert Loeb delivered the point that made it 3-3 with a win on the sixth singles court before Walker Duncan clinched the victory with a win at the No. 5 court. Against LSU, Georgia lost the doubles point and rallied for the win, the only time the Bulldogs have accomplished that feat this season. Nathan Ponwith made his debut at the first singles position and clinched the match.
Other top seeds in the tournament include No. 1 Texas A&M, No. 3 Florida and No. 4 South Carolina. The semifinals will be played Saturday and the championship match will be played Sunday at 1 p.m. ET.
RANKINGS
Georgia is currently ranked 13th in both the Oracle/ITA team rankings and the USTA Top 25. In singles rankings, Wayne Montgomery leads the Bulldogs at No. 31, followed by Nathan Ponwith at No. 49. Emil Reinberg is ranked 61st.
In doubles, Jan Zielinski and Robert Loeb have returned to the No. 2 spot in the national rankings. Nathan Ponwith and Reinberg are ranked 73rd.
ONE-LINERS
» Georgia has won 31 consecutive conference matches at home.
» Walker Duncan holds a record of 21-2 between singles and doubles in conference play and leads the conference in total wins in SEC play.
» Georgia won a share of the 2017 SEC regular-season title, a feat the Bulldogs have accomplished for the fifth-straight season (three outright, two shares).
» This is Georgia’s 40th SEC Championship (31st regular season title, 9 tournament titles) and 27th under head coach Manuel Diaz.
» Jan Zielinski (30 doubles wins) is one away from cracking the top-20 in school history for a single season, as three people are currently tied for 19th with 31.