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Best Teams Not To Win A Natty In The Last 10 Years: 2006 Georgia Bulldogs

by | Jun 25, 2015 | Blog | 1 comment

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The 2006 Georgia Bulldogs seemed like they were a team that was destined to give Manny Diaz his 3rd NCAA Championship and the schools 5th after they spent virtually the entire season ranked #1.

The experienced team started 3 seniors, 2 juniors, and a sophomore and 1 of the juniors was none other than big John Isner.  Isner won the ITA All Americans in the fall by defeating Baylor’s Lars Poerschke 7-6, 7-6 in the final. Georgia’s eventual #6 singles player, Strahinja Bobusic, picked up 3 top 35 wins in the fall including a win over #2 Ludovic Walter of Duke.

Luis Flores was the lone sophomore and he started off the year playing at #1 singles. Flores, who was a top 10 ITF junior with a pair of wins over this guy named Novak Djokovic, actually joined the team in January of the year prior but wasn’t eligible to play until January 2006. Antonio Ruiz teamed with John Isner to win the 2005 NCAA Doubles Championship but then took the fall off to play in pro events.  Colin Purcell was coming off a year where he went 19-4 splitting time between #4 and #5 and he had a decent fall but an injury kept him out of the lineup for the first 3 matches of the 2006 season.  Matic Omerzel was coming off a 16-7 year where he played mostly at #3 and then he made it to the finals of the SEC Indoors in January 2006.

As you can see the top 7 guys on the depth chart were well accomplished juniors with each having a high ITF junior rankings of inside the top 150.  FYI, TennisRecruiting.Net debuted its first rankings in 2006 so all these guys were past their freshman year already so hence no TR-star rating. 
High ITF Junior Ranking

Isner – 93
Flores – 9
Ruiz – 41
Omerzel – 125
Purcell – 145
Bobusic – 98
Gonzalez – 113

It seemed like the deck was pretty heavily stacked in Georgia’s favor and that they were going to roll through the schedule and for the most part they would.

The Bulldogs started off the year with 5 easy wins before they faced a stiff test against #7 UCLA in the quarterfinals of the National Team Indoors. Georgia jumped out to a 3-1 lead but UCLA tied it back up at 3-3 with wins at #1 and #3. It came down to #4 singles where Georgia’s Strahinja Bobusic would come back from a set down to win it in 3.

#2 Georgia def. #7 UCLA 4-3
February 18, 2006 – ITA National Team Indoor Quarterfinals – Seattle, Washington

Doubles (Order of Finish: 3,2)
1. Gruendler/Kohlloeffel (UCLA) vs. Isner/Ruiz (Georgia)  6-4, susp
2. #6 Bobusic/Purcell (Georgia) def. Abid/Surapol (UCLA) 8-4
3.  Flores/Omerzel (Georgia) def. Dehaine/Aaron Yovan (UCLA) 8-3
Singles (Order of Finish: 2, 6, 5, 1, 3, 4)
1.  #3 Benjamin Kohlloeffel (UCLA) def. Luis Flores (Georgia) 6-4, 6-4
2.  #2 John Isner (Georgia) def. Haythem Abid (UCLA) 6-2, 6-2
3.  #75 Mathieu Dehaine (UCLA) def. Antonio Ruiz (Georgia) 3-6, 7-6(2), 6-3
4.  #12 Strahinja Bobusic (Georgia) def. Chris Surapol (UCLA) 4-6, 7-5, 6-0*
5.  #96 Matic Omerzel (Georgia) def. Philipp Gruendler (UCLA) 7-5, 6-2
6.  Michael Look (UCLA) def. Colin Purcell (Georgia) 6-4, 6-3
Note: The reason many of the guys weren’t ranked is because back in 2006 they had singles rankings done in early January and then not again until after the NTIs.  So if you didn’t play in the fall you weren’t going to be ranked until late February – hence you had an unranked Luis Flores playing at #1 for Georgia. 

The next day in the semifinals Georgia would have another 4-3 match this time coming against #3 Illinois. After Georgia took the doubles point, Illinois came back with wins at 3, 5, and 6 from Kevin Anderson, Ryan Rowe, and Marc Spicijaric to take a 3-1 lead. John Isner cut the Illinois lead to 3-2 after he won a tight 7-6, 7-6 match at #2 and Luis Flores would tie it up at 3 after coming back from a break down in each set to win 7-5, 7-5 at #1. For the second day in a row the match would come down to Strahinja Bobusic at #4 and for the second day in a row he would come through as he knocked off Ruben Gonzales 6-2 in the 3rd.

#2 Georgia def. #3 Illinois 4-3
February 19, 2006 – ITA National Team Indoor Semifinals – Seattle, Washington 
Singles: (Order of finish: 3,5,6,2,1,4)
1. Luis Flores (UGA) def. GD Jones (ILL); 7-5, 7-5
2. #2 John Isner (UGA) def. #7 Ryler DeHeart (ILL); 7-6(5), 7-6(6)
3. #37 Kevin Anderson (ILL) def. Antonio Ruiz (UGA); 3-6, 6-1, 6-2
4. #12 Strahinja Bobusic (UGA) def. #59 Ruben Gonzales (ILL); 6-3, 2-6, 6-2
5. #99 Ryan Rowe (ILL) def. #96 Matic Omerzel (UGA); 6-4, 1-6, 6-3
6.  Marc Spicijaric (ILL) def. Ricardo Gonzalez (UGA); 6-4, 7-6(4)
Doubles: (Order of finish: 2,1,3)
1. Anderson/Rowe (ILL) def. Isner/Ruiz (UGA); 8-6
2. #6 Purcell/Bobasic (UGA) def. DeHeart/Gonzales (ILL): 8-4
3. Omerzel/Flores (UGA) def. Jones/Spicijaric (ILL); 9-7

Georgia would then cap off the weekend with a 4-0 shutout over #4 Pepperdine and with the win the Bulldogs had their first ever National Team Indoors Championship.

#2 Georgia def #4 Pepperdine 4-0
February 20, 2006 – ITA National Team Indoor Finals – Seattle, Washington

Doubles (Order of Finish: 2,1,3)

1. Doerner/Begemann (Pepp) def. Isner/Ruiz 8-4 (UGA)
2. #6 Purcell/Bobusic (UGA) def. #31 Rico/Lovrak (Pepp) 8-3
3. Omerzel/Flores (UGA) def. Johnson/Altmann (Pepp) 9-8 (1)

Singles (Order of Finish: 6,2,4)

1. Luis Flores (UGA) vs. Scott Doerner (Pepp) 7-6(3), 3-2, DNF
2. #2 John Isner (UGA) def. #100 Pedro Rico (Pepp) 6-4, 6-2
3. Ivor Lovrak (Pepp) vs. Antonio Ruiz (UGA) 7-5, 2-6, DNF
4. #12 Strahinja Bobusic (UGA) def. Richard Johnson (Pepp) 6-3, 7-5
5. Andre Begemann (Pepp) vs. #96 Matic Omerzel (UGA) 7-6(4), 4-4, DNF

6. Colin Purcell (UGA) def. Omar Altmann (Pepp) 6-2, 6-3

Georgia would go on to finish the regular season with a perfect 22-0 record and posted shutouts in 11 of those 22 wins. They had 4 matches finish with a 4-3 score with each of those coming against a top 10 opponent (#3 Illinois, #5 Florida, #7 UCLA, #10 Ole Miss).

The Florida match had to be the closest of them all because Georgia dropped the doubles point for the first time all season and then trailed 3-2 before both Matic Omerzel and Luis Flores each came back from a set down to win in 3-sets at #5 and #2 singles.  Flores’s match came down to a 3rd set tiebreak with Flores holding on to win 9-7 in the tiebreak.


#1 Georgia def. #5 Florida 4-3
March 12, 2006 – Athens, Georgia
Doubles (Order of Finish: 1,2,3)
1. Nestor Briceno/Stefan Tell (UF) def. #7 John Isner/Antonio Ruiz (UGA), 9-7
2. Janne Holmia/V Obradovic (UF) def. #9 Strahinja Bobusic/Colin Purcell (UGA), 8-4
3. Greg Ouellette/Chris Brandi (UF) def. #55 Luis Floris/Matic Omerzel (UGA), 9-8
Singles (Order of Finish: 6,1,3,4,5,2)
1. #1 John Isner (UGA) def. #39 Greg Ouellette (UF), 6-4, 6-2
2. #29 Luis Flores (UGA) def Janne Holmia (UF) 4-6, 6-1, 7-6 (7)
3. #68 Vladimir Obradovic (UF) vs. Antonio Ruiz (UGA), 6-3, 7-5
4. #66 Nestor Briceno (UF) def. #30 Strahinja Bobusic (UGA), 2-6, 7-5, 6-2
5. #49 Matic Omerzel (UGA) def. Chris Brandi (UF), 6-3, 3-6, 6-2
6. Colin Purcell (UGA) def. Ryan Sherry (UF), 6-2, 6-3
Another scare came when Georgia went to Oxford to face an Ole Miss team that was riding a 31-match home court winning streak. Georgia jumped out to a 3-0 lead after taking the doubles point and picking up wins from Luis Flores and Colin Purcell at #2 and #5. Ole Miss would come back with wins at #3, #4, and #6 to even it at 3-3. It all came down to a 3rd set at #1 singles between John Isner and Eric Claesson. Isner went up 2-0 but Claesson broke back to make it 2-1. Isner would break again and hold for 4-1 and would then hold 2 more times to close it out 6-3 in the 3rd. 
#1 Georgia def #10 Ole Miss 4-3 
April 9, 2006 – Oxford, Mississippi 
Doubles (Order of Finish: 2,1)
1. #12 Isner/Ruiz (UGA) def. #8 Tveit/Claesson (OM) 8-4
2. #23 Flores/Omerzel (UGA) def. ten Berge/Di Cesare (OM) 8-5
3. Poole/Klaeson (OM) vs. #10 Bobusic/Purcell (UGA) 6-7, SUS.
Singles (Order of Finish: 2,5,6,4,3,1)
1. #2 John Isner (UGA) def. #27 Eric Claesson (OM) 6-4, 6-7, 6-3
2. #23 Luis Flores (UGA) def. #17 Erling Tveit (OM) 6-1, 6-2
3. #69 Juan Pablo Di Cesare (OM) def. Antonio Ruiz (UGA) 3-6, 7-6, 6-3
4. Bram ten Berge (OM) def. #61 Matic Omerzel (UGA) 6-2, 6-7(5), 6-0
5. Colin Purcell (UGA) def. Robbye Poole (OM) 6-3, 6-2
6. Jakob Klaeson (OM) def. #50 Strahinja Bobusic (UGA) 6-3, 7-6(6)

Georgia rolled through its first 2 matches in the SEC Tournament shutting out host Alabama and Mississippi State before having to face Ole Miss again in the Championship match.  Ole Miss jumped out to the early lead by taking the doubles point and the Rebels would also grab four first sets in singles. Ole Miss’s Juan Pablo Di Cesare extended the lead to 2-0 with a straight set win at #4 but Georgia would turn the rest of the courts around. After Luis Flores trimmed the Ole Miss lead to 2-1 with a straight set win at #2, Georgia’s John Isner, Antonio Ruiz and Strahinja Bobusic would all take second sets after dropping the first. Colin Purcell tied it at 2 with a 3-set win at #5 and then Antonio Ruiz put Georgia ahead for good with a win at #3. Moments later Strahinja Bobusic would clinch the Bulldogs 6th SEC Tournament Championship with a 2-6, 6-1, 6-2 win at #6.

#1 Georgia def #13 Ole Miss 4-2
April 23, 2006 – SEC Championship Finals – Tuscaloosa, Alabama 

Doubles (Order of Finish: 1,2,3)

1. #8 Tveit/Claesson (OM) def. #5 Isner/Ruiz (UGA) 8-4
2. #39 Flores/Omerzel (UGA) def. ten Berge/Di Cesare (OM) 8-5
3. Poole/Klaeson (OM) def. #16 Bobusic/Purcell (UGA) 8-4

Singles (Order of Finish: 4,2,5,3,6)

1. #2 John Isner (UGA) vs. #22 Erling Tveit (OM) 4-6, 6-3, 5-4, sus.
2. #20 Luis Flores (UGA) def. #43 Eric Claesson (OM) 6-4, 6-3
3. Antonio Ruiz (UGA) def. Bram ten Berge (OM) 2-6, 7-6(3), 6-3
4. #106 Juan Pablo Di Cesare (OM) def. #65 Matic Omerzel (UGA) 6-4, 6-3
5. Colin Purcell (UGA) def. Robbye Poole (OM) 6-1, 4-6, 6-2
6. #59 Strahinja Bobusic (UGA) def. Jakob Klaeson (OM) 2-6, 6-1, 6-2

Georgia would be awarded the #1 seed in the NCAAs and would roll through Furman, Georgia Tech, and Notre Dame in the first 3 rounds but in the Notre Dame match the Bulldogs would lose Strahinja Bobusic for the rest of the year with a tore tendon in his wrist. Bobusic was not only ranked #59 in singles (14-3 dual match record) but he and Purcell were also ranked #16 in doubles (16-5 dual match record) so his loss would be a tough one.

The loss of Bobusic wouldn’t be felt as much in the NCAA quarterfinal match against Virginia because due to weather the match was moved indoors to the San Francisco Tennis Club. With 4 quarterfinal matches being played simultaneously only 4 courts were available so #5 and #6 singles wouldn’t go on until other matches finished. Bobusic’s replacement Ricardo Gonzalez would trail 4-3 in the 1st set when Georgia clinched the 4-0 win with John Isner getting past Somdev Devarrman 7-6(2), 7-6(4) at #1 singles.

Georgia would then face a Baylor squad that had to be feeling the effects of a 5 hour 37 minute 4-3 quarterfinal win over Stanford in a match that didn’t end until around midnight pacific (2am central). Despite the late night Baylor came out strong in doubles and grabbed the point for the early 1-0 lead.

Georgia would rally in singles and take the opening set on 4 of 6 courts and actually all but 1 court would finish in straight sets.  John Isner and Luis Flores put Georgia ahead 2-1 with wins at #1 and #2 but Baylor would re-take the lead at 3-2 with wins from Michal Kokta and Vladimir Portnov at #3 and #6. Colin Purcell would tie it at 3 as he ran his winning streak to 19 with a straight set win at #5 so it all came down to #4 between Baylor’s Will Ward and Georgia’s Matic Omerzel.

Ward was one of the heroes the night before when he won his match against Stanford’s James Wan 7-6 in the 3rd but the match took so much out of him that he was in the hospital until 3am receiving intravenous fluids.

There were no breaks of serve in the first two sets with Omerzel taking the first set tiebreak and Ward taking the second. The service hold streak would end at 27 when Omerzel broke Ward to go up 3-1 in the 3rd. Omerzel would consolidate the break for a 4-1 lead and would hold another 2 more times to seal the Georgia win and put the Bulldogs back in the National Championship match for the 11th time.

#1 Georgia (30-0) def. #3 Baylor (25-7) 4-3  
May 22, 2006 – NCAA Semifinal – Palo Alto, California                
Doubles (Order of Finish: 1,3)                   
1. #23 Kokta/Poerschke (BU) def. #9 Isner/Ruiz (UGA) 8-6                 
2. #50 Flores/Omerzel (UGA) vs. Brown/Zgaga (BU) 7-6 DNF              
3. David Galic/Ward (BU) def. Gonzalez/Purcell (UGA) 8-6                   
Singles (Order of Finish: 2,1,3,6,5,4)                     
1. #2 John Isner (UGA) def. #4 Lars Poerschke (BU) 6-4, 6-3                
2. #19 Luis Flores (UGA) def. #65 Matija Zgaga (BU) 6-4, 6-2               
3. #29 Michal Kokta (BU) def. Antonio Ruiz (UGA) 7-5, 6-2                   
4. #64 Matic Omerzel (UGA) def. Will Ward (BU) 7-6, 6-7(7), 6-3                    
5. Colin Purcell (UGA) def. #124 Matt Brown (BU) 6-4, 6-2  
6. Vladimir Portnov (BU) def. Ricardo Gonzalez (UGA) 6-3, 6-4

Despite beating Pepperdine 4-0 earlier in the year Georgia knew that this one wasn’t going to be easy because the Waves had won 22 of their last 23 and they had just avenged that the one loss to Texas in the semifinals. Pepperdine won its round of 16, quarterfinal, and semifinal matches by a combined score of 12-2 (#17 Florida 4-0, #10 UCLA 4-1, #3 Texas 4-1

Georgia had 3 players riding double-digit win streaks coming into the match (Isner 27, Purcell 19, Flores 16) plus Omerzel had won 13 of his last 16 and Ruiz had won 8 of his last 10. Georgia had won the doubles point in 26 of 29 matches but they were just 1-1 since Bobusic went out.

Pepperdine’s Pedro Rico was riding an 11-match winning streak at #2, Ivok Lovrak had won his last 4 at #3, Andre Begemann had won 3 in a row at #4, and Omar Altmann had won 3 in a row at #6. Both Scott Doerner and Richard Johnson were coming off loses at #1 and #5.

Pepperdine would take a 1-0 lead after they picked up wins at #1 and #2 doubles with Begemann and Doerner getting a late break at #1 to seal the point. Georgia regrouped in singles and would take the opening set on 5 courts but Pepperdine would make inroads on 3 of those 5 courts and force a 3rd set at 2, 3, and 4.

Pepperdine’s Omar Altmann, who finished the year 26-6 in dual-match play, put the Waves up 2-0 with a 7-5, 6-1 win over Ricardo Gonzales at #6. Gonzales was 10-3 in dual match play coming into the NCAAs but he would go 0-2 filling in for the injured Bobusic.

Ivor Lovrak would put Pepperdine up 3-0 after he came back from a set down to beat Antonio Ruiz 1-6, 6-1, 6-4 at #3. Lovrak finished the year with a 24-1 dual match record.

It looked like Georgia’s Matic Omerzel was going to put the first point on the board for the Bulldogs because he led Andre Begemann 6-2, 4-2 at #4 but Begemann broke back and would force a 2nd set tiebreak. Omerzel led 4-2 in the tiebreak and had a high volley at the net that would have made it 5-2 but the ball clipped the tape and kicked back on Omerzel’s side. That seemed to be the turning point because Begemann would finish the next few points at the net and would end up taking the tiebreak 7-5 to force a 3rd set.  (note: the TB score in the 2nd set wasn’t published anywhere so thanks to Will Glenn for giving me the intel – I was at the match myself but during the TB I was watching the 3 main courts and just couldn’t remember the details)

Georgia would finally get on the board when John Isner closed out Scott Doerner in straight sets at #1 and moments later Colin Purcell did the same at #5 so the Dawgs now trailed 3-2.

Luis Flores would go up an early break in the 3rd set at #2 but Andre Begemann would break Omerzel for only the 2nd time all match to go up 5-4 in the 3rd and Begemann would then serve for the Championship. Begemann went down 0-15 on his serve and it looked like he would go down 0-30 when Omerzel hit a topspin lob that many in the crowd thought landed on the line. Begemann however called it out and when the chair wouldn’t overrule that officially made it 15-15 and not 0-30. 3 points later Begemann closed the door and Pepperdine had its 1st ever NCAA Championship.

#2 Pepperdine (36-2) def. #1 Georgia (30-1), 4-2 

May 23, 2006 – NCAA Championship Final – Palo Alto, California
Doubles (Order of Finish: 2,1)
1. #3 Begemann/Doerner (Pepp) def. #9 Isner/Ruiz (UGA) 9-7
2. #47 Lovrak/Rico (Pepp) def. #50 Flores/Omerzel (UGA), 8-5
3. Gonzalez/Purcell (UGA) led Altmann/Johnson (Pepp) 8-7
Singles (Order of Finish: 6,3,1,5,4)
1. #2 John Isner (UGA) def. #8 Scott Doerner (Pepp) 7-6(1), 6-4
2. #19 Luis Flores (UGA) led #31 Pedro Rico (Pepp) 6-4, 4-6, 3-2
3. #92 Ivor Lovrak (PU) def. Antonio Ruiz (UGA) 1-6, 6-1, 6-4
4. Andre Begemann (PU) def. #64 Matic Omerzel (UGA) 2-6, 7-6(5), 6-4
5. Colin Purcell (UGA) def. Richard Johnson (Pepp) – 7-5, 7-6(6)

6. Omar Altmann (Pepp) def. Ricardo Gonzales (UGA) – 7-5, 6-1

There’s no way to know with 100% certainty that Georgia would have won it all with Bobusic in the lineup but it definitely would have made it tougher on Pepperdine.

Georgia would go on to win the next 2 National Championships in 2007 and 2008 but had they got the Natty in 2006 that would have made it 3 straight.  

Career Pro Highlights:

  • John Isner: high ATP ranking of 9 (4/16/12), current singles ranking of 17, 13 singles titles (9 ATP 250, 3 Challengers, 1 Future), 6 doubles titles (1 ATP Master, 2 ATP 250, 2 Challenger, 1 Future), been ranked inside the top 35 in the last 6 year-end rankings and inside the top 20 in the last 5
  • Luis Flores: high ATP ranking of 423 (9/29/08), 3 singles titles (all Futures), 1 Futures doubles titles
  • Antonio Ruiz: high ATP ranking of 652 (12/15/08), 7 doubles titles (all Futures)
  • Colin Purcell: high ATP ranking of 1266 (5/26/08, 0 titles
  • Strahinja Bobusic: high ATP ranking of 1247 (7/7/08), 1 Futures doubles title
  • Ricardo Gonzalez: no ATP points but has played Davis Cup for Puerto Rico off and on since 2006. 

Matic Omerzel didn’t play professionally after college.

Full season statistics and schedule below.

Early posts about the best teams not to win a National Championship:

2005 Baylor Bears

1 Comment

  1. 181
    181 on Thu March 19, 2020 at 6:06 pm

    This looked similar to Oklahoma this year. Number 1 nearly all year against a brutal schedule and didn't come through in the end. Tremendous year for UGA but has to feel awful. It happens but those kids had to have liked their chances.