They are the yin and the yang of doubles tennis.

Senior Nate Schnugg and Jamie Hunt have been dominating doubles play since the two were 16 years old. Photo by KATHERINE POSS

Though senior Nate Schnugg provides powerful serves, senior Jamie Hunt rockets back returns.

And while Schnugg stands calm and unshaken at 6-foot-3, Hunt shakes nervously at 5-foot-9, bouncing around the court energetically.

While the two captains of the men’s tennis team may be different, together they are a winning doubles pair.

“All of my weaknesses, Jamie has those strengths. It definitely helps on return games when I’m not feeling that confident and Jamie is exploding forehand returns and hitting winners all over the place,” Schnugg said.

Before college, when they were about 16 years old, the two met and trained alongside each other at the Roddick Lavalle Tennis Academy run by John Roddick, a University alum and brother of tennis pro Andy Roddick.

After pairing up when both committed to play at Georgia, they became a major threat in junior doubles draws. Their first tournament together was in 2006 at the Banana Bowl, an ITF juniors tournament in Brazil. The two won, after only competing for a few months together.

Soon after, Hunt and Schnugg became the 2006 U.S. Open Junior Doubles champions. They won the Wimbledon Junior Doubles.

They were junior doubles finalists at the Australian Open and the Italian Open.

They cleaned up at tournament after tournament before starting their career as Bulldogs.

“The coaches play around with a lot of our teams, but it has never even been an option to split us up,” Schnugg said.

Since the two joined the team, head coach Manuel Diaz has seen the pair’s experience and attributes their history of success to their close relationship.

“They just have great chemistry and they complement each other very well. They really just have great communication. They can anticipate what the other one wants to do and likes to do. They understand each other very well,” Diaz said.

Hunt agrees that they know and match each other well, providing separate strengths and contrasting demeanors on the court.

“Nate is the more confident player. He’s the more calm one. I feed off of him in terms of confidence and kind of help with nerves,” the senior from San Antonio said. “We play a lot of big matches together and I get pretty nervous and so I’m kind of hopped and more energetic and he’s a bit more relaxed.”

According to Schnugg, the wide disparity in vigor is clear, but helps to strike a balance on the court. Schnugg steadies Hunt, while Hunt gets Schnugg pumped for the next point.

“Our coaches have always been on me to supply more energy for Jamie, but I don’t think Jamie can handle any more energy. I’m very mellow and I like to stay the same throughout a match, just on an even keel,” Schnugg said. “When we win a big point, it’s nice to see Jamie pumping his fist and running around, that makes me excited and makes me play better.”

In between points, when they are not talking about opponents’ weaknesses to target or what to have for dinner that night, the two help counsel each other through the match.

“I think since we’ve been playing together for so long, when one of us is out of it, we can pick each other up. We’re not scared to call each other out and I think that a lot of teams don’t do that. And that’s what we do well,” Hunt said.

In addition to complementary playing styles, the seniors have complementary attitudes on how to win. Schnugg sums up their success to one word: positivity.

“So many times you see your opponents just giving up on each other, getting negative with each other, and as soon as you see that happening you know that you’ve won, because nobody plays well when someone is disappointed after every shot you hit. So we try to stay positive with each other,” Schnugg said.

This symbiotic relationship has cultivated respect between the two players. The admiration the seniors have for one another’s game can be distracting at times though.

“For me, sometimes I just get caught being a fan of some of the shots Nate hits and I’m out of position a lot of times because he hits some pretty ridiculous shots and I end up just standing there, watching,” Hunt said.

While the importance of solid doubles play cannot be understated in collegiate tennis, the tone the two seniors set for the team does not only affect that aspect of the game.

“From my perspective, they help me out a lot by setting a good example. They’re the older guys, the leaders of the team and they do a really good job with that by letting everybody know how things are, helping everybody out and just setting a good example,” freshman Will Oliver said.

Hunt and Schnugg hope to set an even better example and extend the team’s 4-0 record this weekend at the ITA National Team Indoor Tournament in Charlottesville, Va., where they first will face No. 10 Ole Miss. Last year, the team made it to the finals, where they lost the doubles point and eventually the tournament, to the University of Virginia.

“We’re expecting to come back as national champions. We’re riding a wave of confidence. Everyone’s playing well, everyone’s healthy, so we’re expecting to play really well and come back with the title,” Hunt said.

Schnugg added: “It’s our last one. It’s our last season, so we’re doing everything we can to make it count and we’ll see what happens.”