Southern California Section Announces Six New $15Ks for Men and Women Beginning in June; Navarro and Wolf Post Wins at WTA/ATP Events; ITA's Summer Circuit Schedule Released

While I was at the Easter Bowl, press aide Steve Pratt, who writes articles for USTA Southern California, asked if I knew anything about the six upcoming Pro Circuit events they were introducing this summer. I had not heard about them until then, and today, the released details on the six events, all joint tournaments, beginning May 30 in Rancho Santa Fe and continuing in San Diego(2), Los Angeles, Fountain Valley and Claremont in a seven-week stretch ending on July 17.

Although the prize money is the lowest offered on the ITF World Tennis Tour/USTA Pro Circuit, the advantage they have over the UTR Pro Tennis Tour is the WTA/ATP points offered, which are particularly attractive to college players who are trying to build their pro rankings during the summer. There are also wild cards available, with the restriction that the recipients are "legal US Citizens and Residents of Southern California ONLY (USTA members) or full-time enrolled college/University students of schools in Southern California."

The two players who earn the most ATP or WTA points during the six events will receive a qualifying wild card into the 2023 BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells.

For more on the dates and sites, see this announcement from USTA/Southern California. Pre-qualifying for wild cards has already begun, with the results available at the above link.

Now that I've completed my two weeks of junior tennis coverage in Southern California, I can pay more attention to the professional tournaments in the US this week, after basically missing everything that happened at the Miami Open. The clay season in the United States is a short one, with the men in Houston for the ATP 250 there, back after a two-year absence, and the women in South Carolina, at the WTA 500 Credit One Charleston Open, a new sponsor of the long-time tournament there.

Today two top college players, both former ITA No. 1s in singles, both wild cards, won their first round matches, with JJ Wolf (Ohio State) defeating No. 8 seed Jenson Brooksby (Baylor) 6-4, 6-4 and Emma Navarro (Virginia) advancing when Madison Brengle retired with a knee injury trailing the current Cavalier sophomore 6-7(4), 6-2, 3-0. 

It was Wolf's first ATP tour level win on clay, and his second best win by ranking, with Brooksby currently 36. The 23-year-old's best win by ranking also came this year, in his first round victory over No. 21 Lorenzo Sonego of Italy at the ATP 500 in Acapulco in February. Wolf has an excellent chance to make his first ATP quarterfinal, as he plays qualifier Gijs Brouwer of the Netherlands, currently ranked 361. As you can see from the highlights in the tweet below, Wolf had his kick-serve, plus-one pattern working today against Brooksby.

The 1️⃣-2️⃣ 👊

J.J. Wolf's strategy was on point against Brooksby 👌 #USClay pic.twitter.com/kdrvv3DqJL

— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) April 5, 2022 

Navarro's win over Brengle is her best by ranking, with Brengle currently 56. The 2021 NCAA champion, in her sophomore year at Virginia, also has another WTA Top 100 victory, which came last year over No. 96 Tereza Martincova of the Czech Republic, also by retirement, at a WTA 250 in Charleston. Navarro's second round opponent is No. 10 Ons Jabeur of Tunisia, who will be the best player by ranking that Navarro has played.

For those looking for competition outside of Southern California this summer, the ITA Tennis-Point Summer Circuit will be back, beginning on June 18th at various locations across the country and running through July 25th. The culmination of the Circuit is the National Summer Championships at Florida State in August.

These events are "open," which means anyone may enter as long as they have an ITA Player Membership, which will be available for purchase beginning next month. For more details on entries, seeding, etc., see this document.