SANTA FE, October 12, 2023 (by Steve Pratt)
Coming off qualifying for WTA events this year in places like Charleston, San Diego, Austin and Budapest, Louisa Chirico’s game seems to be clicking heading into the end of the season. On Wednesday during the first round of the TaliMar Rancho Santa Fe Open, the No. 5 seeded New York native Chirico looked sharp in a 6-0, 6-3 win against qualifier Paris Corley.
A one-time junior prodigy who got to as high as No. 6 in the ITF world junior rankings, the 27-year-old Chirico’s pro career started out strong as she reached a career-high of No. 58 in 2016. But shoulder injuries have dropped her ranking over the past few years to currently just inside the world top 220.
Chirico next faces unseeded American Makenna Jones, the 2021 NCAA doubles from the University of North Carolina who is coached by her father Kelly Jones, a San Diego native who reached the ATP World Tour No. 1 ranking in doubles in 1992.
The Chirico-Jones second-round match will start play off at 10 a.m. at the USTA Women’s Pro Circuit $60,000 event taking place at the Rancho Santa Fe Tennis Club and presented by The Gillian Gillies and Prentiss Van Den Berg Team with Compass.
It was a good day for USC teammates Eryn Cayetano and Snow Han as both won their third match in three days convincingly as Cayetano took out fellow qualifier Nicole Rivkin of Germany, 6-2, 6-3, and qualifier Han also moved on with a, 6-3, 7-5, win over India’s Sahaja Yamalapalli.
Top-seeded Julia Riera from Argentina eliminated American Tori Kinard, who lost in qualifying Tuesday but was awarded a spot in the main draw as a “lucky loser” after a player withdrew. Riera controlled the match from the start taking the first set 6-1, with Kinard eking out a 7-5 second-set tiebreaker before succumbing to the strong-serving Riera, 6-2.
Megan McCray, a qualifier from Oceanside, lost to No. 2 Elvina Kalieva, 6-4, 6-0, and Hanna Chang dashed the hopes of another local “lucky loser” as Fontana’s Chang beat the Torrey Pines High School junior Alyssa Ahn, 6-0, 6-3.
Unseeded San Diegan Haley Giavara moved into the second round as she beat UCLA junior Kimmi Hance, 6-4, 6-4. Giavara will play her second-round singles match against No. 7 Anastasia Tikhonova at 10 a.m., and then play a doubles match later in the day.
