Georgia’s Ryan Colby Wins Tournament Title at Longhorn Invitational

AUSTIN, Texas — The University of Georgia men’s tennis team had a strong finish at the final day of the Longhorn Invitational, going 3-1 in singles and junior Ryan Colby winning the tournament championship on Sunday afternoon at the Texas Tennis Center.

Colby finished the weekend winning all three singles matches against ranked competition, including two wins against players ranked in the top 25 of the Intercollegiate Tennis Association singles poll. Miguel Perez Peña notched two ranked singles wins as well, ending the weekend with a three-set victory against Southern California’s No. 63 Wojtek Marek.

“Very impressed with our level of play in this first event,” head coach Manuel Diaz said. “I am especially pleased with Ryan Colby going undefeated and earning three ranked wins. Ryan and Neils [Ratiu] played at a very high level and overall, our team competed extremely well. We are looking forward to playing at home next week and continuing to show progress.”

Sunday saw freshman Cyrus Mahjoob earn his first collegiate singles victory with a 6-4, 6-0 win over Andrei Volgin to end the weekend with a 1-2 record. Fellow freshman Parker Mariencheck also won his first match as a Bulldog after he beat Eshan Talluri of Texas in straight sets on Saturday, splitting his two matches this weekend.

Colby won his match against No. 22 Peter Makk by a 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 score to finish the weekend 3-0. Despite dropping the first set, Perez Peña would fend off No. 63 Marek in the second set, nearly shutting him out in the breaker. The junior would go on to take the match, 3-6, 7-6(1), 2-0, after his opponent retired. Ratiu took the second set after breaking Karl Lee (USC) to fend off a tiebreaker but came just short in the third set and lost by a 6-2, 5-7, 6-4 result. With Mahjoob’s win rounding out the team’s performance on Sunday, Georgia won seven singles matches over the course of the three-day event.

Both Bulldog tandems in doubles narrowly lost their matches. Parker Jacques and Mahjoob were ahead early in their match against Jamie Connel and Azariah Rusher of Florida St. but fell after dropping the breaker, 8-7(3). Filipe Costa and Paulsell lost to Southern California’s Lee and Volgin by an 8-6 score. The Bulldogs finished their time in Austin with three wins in doubles competition.

Georgia will continue its fall season on Friday, as the team will host the 55th annual Southern Intercollegiate Championships at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex from Sept. 29-Oct. 1.