MOBILE, Ala.- Top-seeded and unbeaten Georgia Gwinnett defeated fifth-seeded Southeastern (Fla.) 4-0, and second-seeded Tennessee Wesleyan rallied for a 4-3 victory against third-seeded and defending champion Kaiser (Fla.) in Friday’s semifinals of the 74th annual UTR Sports NAIA Men’s Tennis National Championship.
Georgia Gwinnett (24-0) and Tennessee Wesleyan (22-2) will play for the championship at 9 a.m. CDT Saturday at Copeland-Cox Mobile Tennis Center. Admission is free. The women’s championship match will follow at 1 p.m.
Friday:
• Georgia Gwinnett 4, Southeastern (Fla.) 0: The Grizzlies advanced to the championship round for the 12th consecutive time. Juan Carlos Garcia clinched at No. 5 with a 6-1, 7-5 victory against Aristeidis Lafazanos. Santiago Villarruel and Luis Francisco Sampedro, No. 1 in the ITA/NAIA doubles rankings, clinched that point by defeating Javier Gallego and Piero Fernandez 7-5. Francisco Perez Esnaola at No. 4 and Kanan Gasimov at No. 6 also won in singles. Southeastern, in the semifinals for the third time in four years, finished 17-5.
• Tennessee Wesleyan 4, Keiser (Fla.) 3: Chanon Phunsawat, trailing 4-2 in the second set on court three, rallied for a 4-6, 7-6 (7-2), 6-2 victory against Andrej Krajcik to advance the Bulldogs to the final for the second time in four years. Tennessee Wesleyan’s Serafin Zund won 5-7, 6-2, 6-4 at No. 2 against Shaheed Alam to tie the match at 3. Keiser won the doubles point; Oliver King and Andrew Reznik clinched on court two with a 6-4 victory against Agustin Gaia and Mario Monclus. Keiser, in the semifinals for the sixth consecutive year, finished 18-2. The Seahawks entered with a 17-match win streak. Tennessee Wesleyan improved its win streak to 17.
Notes:
• Weather for the men’s semifinals: sunny and 72 degrees.
• Georgia Gwinnett’s men won 10 consecutive national championships — 2014-19 and 2021-24 (no 2020 tournament because of the COVID-19 pandemic) — before losing 4-2 to Keiser in the 2025 final.
• Georgia Gwinnett defeated Tennessee Wesleyan 4-0 in the 2023 final.
• Georgia Gwinnett seeks to complete a 10th unbeaten season.
