University of Georgia Athletics
Dong Off To Strong Start
February 03, 2026 | Women's Tennis, The Frierson Files
By John Frierson
Staff Writer
Emma Dong first began playing tennis at 5 years old. Her father, Justin, first got her into the sport.
"It was just for fun with my dad," the Georgia freshman said. "I was playing other sports at the time, too, and then, at around 7, I started training at an actual club. I had a good feel and good hang of just how the sport was."
Dong played a variety of sports as a young girl growing up in Vancouver. She did swimming, skating and taekwondo, as well as tennis. She said she "was almost a black belt at one point" in taekwondo before putting it and the other sports aside to focus on tennis.
Even though she stopped doing taekwondo around 8 or 9, there are elements of the sport, Dong said, that have helped her on the tennis court.
"A lot of taekwondo is about respect and being very disciplined and having a good work ethic. And on the athletic side, I would consider myself pretty flexible. When we were in our taekwondo sessions, we spent a lot of time stretching, and maintaining your mobility and flexibility were super important. I'm not sure if that's why I'm still pretty flexible; I'm pretty mobile, and maybe that's one reason why."
Dong said she ultimately chose to pursue tennis over the other sports because she enjoyed the physical and mental challenges it offers, and because it was a chance to bond with her father.
"The club coaches were like, 'I can see that she's improving very rapidly and she has a good feel for the game.' I really enjoyed it. I thought it was such a unique and interesting sport, and my dad played it a lot," she said. "So I think it was just, to me, a pretty clear decision that I would stick with tennis."
She clearly chose well. After a very good junior career, which included three Canadian national singles titles and two in doubles, Dong joined the Bulldogs this fall. She was injured for much of last year, so it took her a little while to get back to top form when she got here. Despite some rust, she still went 5-3 during tournament play in the fall.
"I barely played any matches before I got here, so it was a little bit of slow start for me, but I would say this fall to now, I'm seeing a lot of improvement in my game," she said.
Dong kicked off her dual-match career in impressive fashion last weekend, earning a pair of wins in singles and doubles. In her first dual match, last Friday at Georgia Tech, she and partner Anastasiia Gureva clinched the doubles point for the top-ranked Bulldogs at the No. 3 spot, and then she followed that with a 6-3, 6-2 win over Tech's Sabritt Dozier at No. 6 singles.
Last Sunday, in Georgia's 5-2 loss at No. 3 North Carolina, Dong and Gureva won at No. 3 doubles, and then Dong earned her first singles win over a ranked opponent, beating No. 51-ranked Theadora Rabman, 6-1, 7-6, at No. 6.
"It was a great experience, and super exciting to play with the team in an official dual match," she said.
Dong is one of five newcomers on a Georgia team that lost half of its six starting singles players from last season's ITA National Team Indoor and NCAA championship squad. Of the new players, four are freshmen and one is a sophomore also in her first season of college tennis. This isn't Dong's first trip away from home, however.
"When I was 15, I moved to Montreal to train at the (Tennis Canada) National Tennis Centre. It was a tough adjustment for me at first, and when I went to Montreal, I was away from my parents for the first time," she said. "It was a new environment, online school, and it was really tough for me, mentally and physically. Those first six to eight months, I was just mentally drained.
"Coming here, I was not worried, just excited for this new environment and having the whole team around me."
Georgia has players from seven different countries, which means Dong is getting an education in the locker room as well as the classroom.
"I think everyone brings a little bit of everything," she said. "We all come from different backgrounds and have our different cultures. I think it's just super cool to be bonding with so many girls from different countries. It's been really fun, honestly."
Working with Georgia's coaches for the past few months has been another educational experience, Dong said.
"They have such a great vision on how each player can continue developing their game and sort of thrive with what they already have," she said. "I feel like their coaching is more tactical and less working on, like, how to change the form on your forehand or serve. They're developing what you already have."
And as she's already shown, Dong has plenty of game. Up next for her and the Bulldogs is the ITA National Team Indoor Championships starting this Friday at Northwestern. The second-seeded Bulldogs take on seventh-seeded Virginia in the first round.
Staff Writer
Emma Dong first began playing tennis at 5 years old. Her father, Justin, first got her into the sport.
"It was just for fun with my dad," the Georgia freshman said. "I was playing other sports at the time, too, and then, at around 7, I started training at an actual club. I had a good feel and good hang of just how the sport was."
Dong played a variety of sports as a young girl growing up in Vancouver. She did swimming, skating and taekwondo, as well as tennis. She said she "was almost a black belt at one point" in taekwondo before putting it and the other sports aside to focus on tennis.
Even though she stopped doing taekwondo around 8 or 9, there are elements of the sport, Dong said, that have helped her on the tennis court.
"A lot of taekwondo is about respect and being very disciplined and having a good work ethic. And on the athletic side, I would consider myself pretty flexible. When we were in our taekwondo sessions, we spent a lot of time stretching, and maintaining your mobility and flexibility were super important. I'm not sure if that's why I'm still pretty flexible; I'm pretty mobile, and maybe that's one reason why."
Dong said she ultimately chose to pursue tennis over the other sports because she enjoyed the physical and mental challenges it offers, and because it was a chance to bond with her father.
"The club coaches were like, 'I can see that she's improving very rapidly and she has a good feel for the game.' I really enjoyed it. I thought it was such a unique and interesting sport, and my dad played it a lot," she said. "So I think it was just, to me, a pretty clear decision that I would stick with tennis."
She clearly chose well. After a very good junior career, which included three Canadian national singles titles and two in doubles, Dong joined the Bulldogs this fall. She was injured for much of last year, so it took her a little while to get back to top form when she got here. Despite some rust, she still went 5-3 during tournament play in the fall.
"I barely played any matches before I got here, so it was a little bit of slow start for me, but I would say this fall to now, I'm seeing a lot of improvement in my game," she said.
Dong kicked off her dual-match career in impressive fashion last weekend, earning a pair of wins in singles and doubles. In her first dual match, last Friday at Georgia Tech, she and partner Anastasiia Gureva clinched the doubles point for the top-ranked Bulldogs at the No. 3 spot, and then she followed that with a 6-3, 6-2 win over Tech's Sabritt Dozier at No. 6 singles.
Last Sunday, in Georgia's 5-2 loss at No. 3 North Carolina, Dong and Gureva won at No. 3 doubles, and then Dong earned her first singles win over a ranked opponent, beating No. 51-ranked Theadora Rabman, 6-1, 7-6, at No. 6.
"It was a great experience, and super exciting to play with the team in an official dual match," she said.
Dong is one of five newcomers on a Georgia team that lost half of its six starting singles players from last season's ITA National Team Indoor and NCAA championship squad. Of the new players, four are freshmen and one is a sophomore also in her first season of college tennis. This isn't Dong's first trip away from home, however.
"When I was 15, I moved to Montreal to train at the (Tennis Canada) National Tennis Centre. It was a tough adjustment for me at first, and when I went to Montreal, I was away from my parents for the first time," she said. "It was a new environment, online school, and it was really tough for me, mentally and physically. Those first six to eight months, I was just mentally drained.
"Coming here, I was not worried, just excited for this new environment and having the whole team around me."
Georgia has players from seven different countries, which means Dong is getting an education in the locker room as well as the classroom.
"I think everyone brings a little bit of everything," she said. "We all come from different backgrounds and have our different cultures. I think it's just super cool to be bonding with so many girls from different countries. It's been really fun, honestly."
Working with Georgia's coaches for the past few months has been another educational experience, Dong said.
"They have such a great vision on how each player can continue developing their game and sort of thrive with what they already have," she said. "I feel like their coaching is more tactical and less working on, like, how to change the form on your forehand or serve. They're developing what you already have."
And as she's already shown, Dong has plenty of game. Up next for her and the Bulldogs is the ITA National Team Indoor Championships starting this Friday at Northwestern. The second-seeded Bulldogs take on seventh-seeded Virginia in the first round.
Assistant Sports Communications Director John Frierson is the staff writer for the UGA Athletic Association and curator of the ITA Men's Tennis Hall of Fame. You can find his work at: Frierson Files.
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