Top Seeds in Girls 16s and 18s Fall in Opening Round of USTA Winter Nationals; Preview of Next Week's Malibu $25Ks; ATP, WTA Seasons Begin Tonight at New United Cup

There was no wait for an upset at the USTA Winter National Championships as Girls 18s top seed Stephanie Yakoff and Girls 16s top seed Laima Frosch lost their opening round matches today at the USTA National Campus in Lake Nona Florida.

Yakoff was beaten by Georgia Tech signee Meera Jesudason of Pennsylvania 6-3, 6-4, while Frosch fell to Summer Chandler of New York 6-1, 1-6, 6-2. 

Not all the results from the late afternoon girls matches have been posted, but all the Boys 16s and 18s singles matches are complete, with the highest seed to fall No. 4 seed Braeden Gelletich, who lost to Tristan Stine of Texas 6-2, 7-6(7) in Boys 16s.

Steve Pratt has prepared a preview of the first Pro Circuit event of 2023, a $25,000 joint event of the SoCal Pro Series, coming up next week on the Pepperdine University campus in Malibu. His release:

SoCal Pro Players Zach Svajda, Govind Nanda and Danielle Lao Expected To Be Among Top-seeded Players At Men’s and Women’s $25,000 SoCal Pro Series Events on ITF World Tour 

 Pepperdine University’s Ralphs-Straus Tennis Facility in Malibu Will Be Site of First Pro Events to Kick Off New Year Jan. 2-8, 2023

 

December 28, 2022 – Two-time Kalamazoo National Junior Champion Zach Svajda, residing in nearby Hermosa Beach, and former UCLA standout Govind Nanda are expected to be the top-seeded men’s players as the SoCal Pro Series makes its return to Southern California with $25,000 men’s and women’s tournaments, event organizers from USTA Southern California have announced.

 

The events are part of the USTA Pro Circuit and ITF World Tour and will kick off with qualifying matches starting Monday, Jan. 2 and continuing through the finals on Sunday, Jan. 8 at Ralphs-Straus Tennis Center on the campus of Pepperdine University in Malibu, Calif.

 

“We are so excited to partner with USTA Southern California to bring professional tennis to Malibu,” said Steve Potts, Pepperdine Director of Athletics. “It is an amazing opportunity to showcase our men's and women's tennis programs and our student-athletes by hosting this combined Men's and Women's 25K SoCal Pro Series tournament.”

 

On the women’s side, former USC star Danielle Lao will be among the top-seeded players and will be joined by other Americans and former college stars such as Jaime Loeb (University of North Carolina), Emina Bektas (University of Michigan) and Francesca Di Lorenzo (Ohio State).

 

Currently ranked just outside the top 300 in the ATP Tour’s world rankings, San Diego native Svajda, 20, enjoyed a successful 2022 ITF campaign which saw him win two back-to-back SoCal Pro Series singles titles while reeling off 10 straight wins in July at the Kramer Club in Rolling Hills Estates and Los Caballeros Racquet Club. Svajda went on to win his first ATP-level Challenger event, taking the singles title at the Tiburon $52,000 event in October. The 80 ranking points bolted his ranking up 124 spots in just one week placing him just outside the world’s top 250.

 

Nanda, 21, from Redlands, is ranked No. 391 in the world and has won four ITF Pro titles – all at the $25,000 level. 

 

Pepperdine men’s tennis head coach Adam Schaechterle is excited to have pro tennis back on the campus at Pepperdine: “This event would not be possible without the vision and leadership of (SoCal Pro Series Chairman) Chris Boyer and (USTA SoCal Executive Director) Trevor Kronemann. They understand the grassroots impact that a professional event can have on a tennis community. We are grateful for their vision and for the opportunity to participate in what the SCTA is building. 

 

“At Pepperdine, we are thrilled to bring pro tennis back to Malibu. We are excited to show off our world class facility at the most beautiful campus in America. This will be a special week for our student-athletes to compete with the pros and for all of Malibu to enjoy world-class tennis.”

 

Other Southern California players expected to play in the men’s and women’s main draws and qualifying include: Gage Brymer (Irvine resident), Alex Michelsen (Aliso Viejo), Connor Farren (USC product), Learner Tien (Irvine), Isaiah Strode (San Diego), Kyle Kang (Fullerton), Jacob Brumm (Rancho Santa Fe). On the women’s side, joining Lao, of Los Angeles, will be Hanna Chang (Fontana), Madison Sieg (USC), Eryn Cayetano (USC), Solymar Colling (University of San Diego), and Jessica Failla (Ramona). 

 

Failla played her college tennis at Pepperdine, which is led by head coach Per Nilsson. “Pepperdine is a perfect site for these kinds of tournaments. It is great to have them back on campus,” Nilsson said.

 

Southern California 18-year-olds Chase Thompson, of Mission Viejo, and Anne Lutkemeyer, of Irvine, were awarded main-draw singles wild cards by way of winning a recent pre-qualifying wild card tournament at Lakewood Tennis Center. Thompson is headed to the University of Notre Dame in the fall while Lutkemeyer is a freshman at UCLA. 

 

Main-draw singles wild cards have been awarded by the SoCal Pro Series committee to Eric Hadigan (Pepperdine), Hudson Rivera (Rancho Santa Fe) and Aditya Gupta (Irvine) on the men’s side, and Savannah Broadus (Pepperdine), Jordyn McBride (University of San Diego) and Princeton-bound Katherine Hui (San Diego) in the women’s tournament.

 

Qualifying wild cards will go to men’s players Phillip Jordan, Rudy Quan, William Kleege, Rohan Murali and Max Mckennon and women’s players Niki Redelijk, Caroline Campana, Tsehay Driscoll and Anna Campan.

 

Cathy Jacobson, who for more than 40 years ran the popular Billie Jean King and El Dorado Park tennis centers in Long Beach, will be the tournament director for these January tournaments at Pepperdine.

 

Weekend semifinals and finals matches will be live-streamed and commentated by popular Cracked Racquets analyst Alex Gruskin, who called the inaugural SoCal Pro Series action over the summer and was joined by Annacone and San Diego product and current ATP player Bradley Klahn.

 

To learn more about the SoCal Pro Series, go to: https://www.ustasocal.com/pro. Follow along on Instagram: @SoCalProCircuit.

The 2023 season for the ATP and WTA gets underway in 2022, with the first matches of the inaugural United Cup in Australia being played tonight. The mixed event, replacing the short-lived ATP Cup competition, features teams of men and women from 18 countries, including the United States, which opens play against the Czech Republic in Sydney tonight.  Greece is the top seed, followed by Poland, USA and Spain. The USA team consists of Taylor Fritz, Jessica Pegula, Frances Tiafoe, Madison Keys, Denis Kudla, Alycia Parks, Hunter Reese and Desirae Krawczyk. 

For more on the competition and a list of the players on each of the 18 teams, see this article from the tournament site. 

Tennis Channel is providing coverage of the event in the United States.