Over the weekend, I spent Saturday afternoon at the men’s tennis match in the Dan Magill Tennis Complex. The late head coach that the facility is named for secured his first national title at the helm of Georgia tennis 40 years ago this year in 1985. The six Dawgs on the court on that fateful June 1985 day were honored between the doubles and singles points as the 2025 men’s tennis team took down Ole Miss 6-1.
Mikael Pernfors, George Bezecny, Allen Miller, Deane Frey, Phillip Johnson and Trey Carter gathered around the trophy with eight decades of tennis lettermen behind them. Former head coach of 36 years Manny Diaz was an assistant on Magill’s staff when they hoisted that same trophy 40 years prior. Diaz presented the six, alongside the team’s managers, with the trophy yet again.
That night, the SEC’s winningest head coach with four national titles and 29 SEC Championships was recognized at the Georgia Theatre with so many lettermen, friends and family gathered.
As the famous sign above the front doors of the Theatre read, “Honoring Coach Manuel Diaz, 46 years, Champion, Mentor and Legend,” the ‘85 team grabbed Diaz on stage, locked arms and sang “Thank You for Being a Friend” with Electric Avenue, the 80s cover band. A special moment for those six teammates and the tenured coach who was always a true friend beyond being their coach.
Diaz, the Legend, coached the two current head coaches of men’s and women’s tennis who both won national championships at Georgia as players, Jamie Hunt (‘07 and ‘08 national champion) and Drake Bernstein (‘08 national champion), respectively. Now, those two have had successes of their own as the head men of both programs.
Bernstein and the women’s tennis team clinched the ITA national indoor title earlier this season and are currently ranked the No. 1 team in the nation. The women are 18-1 on the year and 11-0 in conference play with four matches remaining before the SEC Tournament.
Dasha Vidmanova sits atop the singles rankings as her and Mell Reasco are No. 10 in doubles.
The team took down No. 2 Texas A&M in the indoor championship match as well as No. 5 Virginia in the semifinals. In addition, the 2025 women’s squad has beaten four more top 10 opponents: No. 6 LSU, No. 7 Tennessee, No. 8 Auburn (twice) and No. 10 Oklahoma. The Bulldogs lone loss on the year came to No. 4 North Carolina in February.
It’s stacking up to be a great year for the Lady Bulldogs and second-year head coach Drake Bernstein. The women welcome Vanderbilt to town on Friday.
On the men’s side, Georgia is 14-7 overall and 7-3 in conference play, riding a current four-match win streak.
Saturday’s match against Ole Miss got off to a rocky start as the Bulldogs dropped the doubles point; however, singles picked it up and the match was quickly over. The men won all six singles points and are No. 28 in the national team rankings. Three Dawgs have climbed into the top 40 in the singles rankings: No. 25 Thomas Paulsell, No. 31 Miguel Perez Peña and No. 34 Ryan Colby.
The men travel to Gainesville for a date with Florida on Thursday and Columbia on Saturday as they take on South Carolina before returning to Athens to close out the regular season with Texas and Texas A&M.