Georgia Takes Down No. 15 Florida, 4-1

Monday, February 23

Athens, Ga.

1:00 p.m.

University of Georgia

Florida

February 23, 2026 | Men's Tennis

ATHENS, Ga. --- The University of Georgia men's tennis team upset No. 15 Florida, 4-1, at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex on Monday afternoon.

FAST FACTS:

Georgia started SEC play 2-0 against top-15 opponents after upsetting No. 15 Florida and No. 5 LSU this weekend.

●      The Bulldogs clinched the doubles point after taking courts two and three. Will Jansen and Gabriele Vulpitta earned a 6-2 win over Jeremy Jin and Tanapatt Nirundorn before Derrick Chen and Noah Johnston defeated Andreas Timini and Kevin Edengren on court three, 7-5. Arda Azkara and Santiago Giamichelle went unfinished on court one, 6-6 (1-3).
●      Freshman Noah Johnston took the first singles point for the Bulldogs on court five over Edengren, 6-3, 6-4.
●      The Bulldogs went up 3-1 after Arda Akzara defeated Henry Jefferson by default.
●      Derrick Chen clinched the match on court four after defeating Tanapatt Nirundorn 7-5, 7-6 (11-9).

RESULTS:

Georgia 4, Florida 1

Doubles

Arda Azkara/Santiago Giamichelle (UGA) vs. Henry Jefferson/Lorenzo Claverie 6-6 (1-3), unfinished
Will Jansen/Gabriele Vulpitta (UGA) def. Jeremy Jin/Tanapatt Nirundorn (UF) 6-2
Derrick Chen/Noah Johnston (UGA) def. Andreas Timini/Kevin Edengren 7-5

Singles

#42 Arda Azkara (UGA) def. Henry Jefferson (UF) by default 6(2)-7, 5-2
#30 Will Jansen (UGA) vs. #41 Pablo Perez Ramos(UF) 7-5, 6(4)-7, unfinished
#60 Santiago Giamichelle (UGA) vs. Lorenzo Claverie (UF) 6-3, 6(2)-7, 3-2, unfinished
Derrick Chen (UGA) def. Tanapatt Nirundorn (UF) 7-5, 7-6 (11-9)
Noah Johnston (UGA) def. Kevin Edengren (UF) 6-3, 6-4
Andreas Timini (UF) def. #77 Gabriele Vulpitta (UGA) 6-2, 6-4

QUOTES
Head coach Jamie Hunt

On the team's singles performance…
"That was just an absolutely crazy, exciting college tennis match between two really good teams. Florida's really tough – they're well-coached, they play hard and they made it really difficult on us. We got up 3-1 and they were fighting, they were hanging around. Just a tremendous job from [Derrick Chen] here at the end to have poise and mental toughness to kind of put the missed opportunities behind them and just be able to close that match… Proud of all the guys. They fought really hard."

Graduate Student Derrick Chen

On his match-clinching performance…
"Not my best performance, I think, tennis-wise, but like you said, Tanapatt didn't make it easy on me. He's a very tricky player to play against, so I think I was almost all mental today, just kind of finding my level a little bit at the end, staying tough even when it wasn't going well. And then at the end, I was just kind of trying to believe in myself, even though it was just pure chaos."