Guillermo Gomez loves Atlanta. He likes Chick-fil-A, the Hawks and the NBA. He likes the barbecues and how open and friendly families are. He loves the rhythm of life.

“Atlanta, to me, is a great city,” Gomez said.

It seems to be agreeing with him, as well. Gomez, a native of Alicante, Spain, and a sophomore at Georgia Tech, has a 3.4 GPA in industrial engineering, his own apartment and a sweet Audi sports car. And at the NCAA tennis championships in College Station, Texas, they are getting to know him, too.

Gomez advanced into the second round of the singles draw Wednesday with a 6-4, 6-2 victory over Alabama’s Saketh Myneni. He next faces USC’s Steve Johnson in today’s round of 32.

“I feel confident in winning,” Gomez said before the tournament. “I know that’s tough. I can think of few people who can beat me if I’m playing good.”

It has been a long road. Gomez originally wanted to attend UCLA or Pepperdine, places he had seen on TV back in Spain. Gomez also wanted to be an engineer and he likes big cities, but Tech wasn’t exactly on his itinerary. But when he joined up with traveling group of young Spanish players and their connecting flight came through Atlanta, some of his friends took the side trip to visit Georgia Tech.

He didn’t care. Why? No beach. Alicante is on the East coast of Spain and he attended Universal School, located on this island of Mallorca in the Meditteranean Sea. Gomez had always had sand in his life.

And then he met Kenny Thorne, Tech’s coach.

Thorne had heard about Gomez from the group that was escorting the players across the country. NCAA rules forbid Thorne from taking a look at Gomez on campus, so the group set up a hitting session for him at nearby Bitsy Grant Tennis Center.

“We watched him hit for about five minutes,” Thorne said. “After seeing him, we knew he’d be a pretty good player. Don’t think anybody had an idea he’d come out and do what he did his freshmen year, and again this year as a sophomore.”

Gomez was taught the game as a boy from his father, Roberto, began playing junior tournaments and eventually enrolled in a sports school in Mallorca. There, he occasionally practiced against Rafael Nadal, now the world’s No. 1 player, who was a schoolmate.

Gomez’s father had spent a year in school in the U.S. so a seed had been planted in Guillermo’s mind. When he became restless in Spain — he was playing in some ATP events but needed a backup plan — he decided to look at American colleges with the idea of studying engineering. He could not have expected things to turn out as well as they have.

“He [Roberto] always explained to me that here it’s good because you play tennis and study at the same time,” Gomez said. “But the facilities here, it seems normal, but this is crazy. It’s not normal. All these clothes, the food, they give you racquets, the strings. You need a doctor, they take you to a doctor. This is not normal in Spain. Only pros get these facilities. This is great about the U.S. system and college.”

He has profitted from it. In one year, Gomez has risen from 51st in the collegiate rankings into the top 10, which could not have happened without dedication to practice, school and acclimization.

“I didn’t think we were taking a big chance, but you can never tell how they are going to react to coming over here and the studying and all that kind of aspect,” Thorne said. “He’s done a phenonmenal job.”