IRVINE, June 18, 2026 (Media Release)

Two players made their 2026 SoCal Pro Series debut this week on main draw wildcards offered by USTA Southern California. Two players with completely different family lineages in tennis, but each walked out of the Racquet Club of Irvine with a special shared moment for their budding tennis careers.

Tanvi Pandey and Sophia Webster achieved their first main draw victories in an ITF/USTA Pro Circuit tournament, and a first WTA Tour singles ranking point, through the first round of the $15,000 ITF World Tennis Tour event hosted and managed by USTA Southern California. Pandey, 14, accomplished the feat in her pro tournament appearance.

This Week 4 of the SoCal Pro Series marks its only stop in Orange County, one of the nation’s leading tennis hotbeds for young, developing American tennis talent.

El Segundo resident Webster, 20, gained her first WTA ranking point in rallying to defeat Sacramento’s Klara Kosan, 4-6, 6-2, 6-2, in a first-round match on Tuesday.

Irvine resident Pandey earned her wildcard by winning a pre-qualifying tournament two weeks ago and then did one better in defeating incoming Stanford recruit Kaia Giribalan, 2-6, 6-1, 6-4, on Wednesday to establish her first WTA world ranking, which she claims is among the two best moments in her young tennis life.

“It’s really nice, especially since I’m still a little bit young,” Pandey said. “I was a little bit nervous also because my match was very delayed. It started at 4 p.m. … and I warmed up at, like, 1 p.m. I had to warm up with my dad (Pravin). He was definitely not a tennis player. He’s okay. He could only return my serve. That’s it.”

The Pandey family took residence in Irvine last year after moving from the Sacramento area, partially in search of better competition for Pandey, who turns 15 in September.

Pandey will begin her high school education online later this year and has an early vision for where she wants her tennis to take her once she completes her junior career: “In a perfect world, either I’m going pro or I’m going to Stanford.”

Pandey does not have membership with a club or an academy. Instead, her tennis upbringing has been much more humble. Her training consists of using her friends as hitting partners and taking private lessons with her Spanish coach, Javier Pulgar, 3-4 times a week on community courts in and around Irvine for the past six months.

She only caught wind of the SoCal Pro Series last year through her brother, Aditya, who was trying to qualify for its events last year. She’s hopeful of gaining a wildcard entry into at least one of the last three SoCal Pro Series tournaments this summer, and Wednesday’s win can only help her case.

“These tournaments are really nice,” Pandey said. “There’s ball changes. You can challenge. There’s referees, and the referees are, like, actually good ones. It’s a lot different from the tournaments I usually play.”

Webster is the daughter of Stella Sampras Webster – UCLA’s women’s tennis coach for the past 30 years as well as a four-time NCAA All-American and a 1988 NCAA individual doubles champion with the Bruins – and niece of 14-time Grand Slam champion and American tennis legend Pete Sampras. Going forward, the family name appears to be in good hands in tennis circles.

“Milestone! It was really exciting. I haven’t really thought of it until you mentioned it,” Webster said of achieving that first ranking point. “Playing the last few years and haven’t made it past qualies and lost first round, so getting my first point is, definitely, really cool. I called my mom afterwards, told her how it went. She was happy.”

Webster didn’t know if word of her groundbreaking result had yet spread to her Uncle Pete, “unless my mom talked to him. He’s always super supportive, which is great.”

It was Webster’s first match since she completed her sophomore season playing with Vanderbilt in a NCAA Division I Super Regional on May 9. She also plans to play in the SoCal Pro Series finale at Rancho Santa Fe Tennis Club the week of July 6.

Webster also explained why she chose to play for Vanderbilt over staying home to play for her mother at UCLA.

Said Webster: “I obviously grew up on UCLA’s campus and that was always my dream school. But when I started getting recruited, I think that’s when you start realizing what life would be like in college with your mom coaching you, like how that dynamic is going to work on the team and with the other coaches. I think at that point I realized I kind of wanted to have my own path and to not have my mom be there every step of the way.

“UCLA was always in the back of my mind and I was kind of just waiting for the right fit. And then I went to Vandy and I loved it. I loved the coaches. I loved the team. And my mom knows them really well and said all good things about them. My parents were super supportive. Honestly, my mom was like, ‘If you want to come to UCLA, we’d love to have you,’ but she wanted me to have my own experience as well.”

Bryce Nakashima (photo: Jon Mulvey/USTA Southern California)

Another 2026 SoCal Pro Series debutante with top-tier tennis running in the family, San Diegan Bryce Nakashima overpowered Billy Suarez, 6-1, 6-2, with the Ohio State returning senior fittingly closing out his match with an ace.

Nakashima, the younger brother of Brandon Nakashima (No. 32 ATP ranking), plans to play the final four events of the SoCal Pro Series. He came back to the Racquet Club of Irvine for the first time since 2023, when he partnered with a 17-year-old Learner Tien (current No. 19 ATP ranking) to claim the third of his five ITF Futures doubles championships. Being at the venue brought back good vibes and a happy return.

Said Nakashima: “It feels good. The sun’s nice, the weather’s perfect. When you play in Columbus, it’s, like, windy, rain. Like barely 50 degrees.

“I remember Learner couldn’t not hit a winner. Everything that came off his racket was either a winner, or it was too good. I mean, you knew Learner was gonna be good. He was winning all the singles (matches), too, and he was just rolling out in doubles. I think he was, like, trying 50 percent and was still better than everyone on the court. I’m surprised he even played with me that week. I can’t remember who asked first but we both said yes and it worked out.”

The top seeds in both singles draws were shown the exit in the first round. It’s been a case of all or nothing in the 2026 SoCal Pro Series for Redondo Beach native and Westwood resident Kaylan Bigun and, much to his chagrin, he continued the trend.

The former UCLA product and junior World No. 1 won the singles title at Lakewood Tennis Center to open the 2026 SoCal Pro Series, then lost in the first round in Week 2. He won last week’s title at Jack Kramer Club, only for the top seed in the men’s draw to lose in Wednesday’s first round, 6-3, 4-6, 1-6, to recent Yale graduate Vignesh Gogineni, who matches up with Nakashima in Thursday’s second round.

It would be easy to dismiss Bigun’s defeat as another SoCal Pro Series title hangover until one realizes Gogineni was a 2026 Ivy League first-team selection as Yale’s No. 1 player, and he holds a straight-set victory over two-time reigning NCAA Division I individual champion Michael Zheng, who this year reached the second round of the Australian Open and the French Open main draw (via qualifying) a few weeks ago.

Asked to rate his victory over Bigun among those in 2026, Gogineni said, “It’s up there. I’d say top five. Kaylan’s a great player and he just came off a title at Kramer Club. No offense to Kaylan, but I think (my win versus) Zheng is in its own category.”

Bigun has two former teammates from the 2025 Big Ten Conference champion UCLA team reaching Thursday’s Round 2 in Ladera Ranch resident Spencer Johnson and Thousand Oaks native Rudy Quan. Johnson, a 2026 SoCal Pro Series semifinalist in Weeks 1 and 3, beat San Diego State sophomore William Kleege, 6-1, 6-4, and Quan eliminated fellow Bruin Emon van Loben Sels, 2-6, 6-3, 6-1, on Tuesday.

Johnson and Quan are two of the Bruins’ top four singles players from last season who were entered into this week’s men’s singles draw.

“We’re all in touch a lot and we’re all close friends,” said Johnson, though he insists he and Quan are not yet pondering a ‘What if’ scenario towards Sunday’s final. “We don’t talk about that but … that would be pretty epic, so we’ll see what’s up.”

San Diegans and UC Irvine players, past and present, had mixed results in the first round. Noah Zamora, who graduated in 2025 as the Anteaters’ No. 1 player, advanced on Tuesday through a 6-2, 7-5 win over Kelly Giese, of Manhattan Beach. 2025 USC graduate Karl Lee rolled to a 6-1, 6-1 victory over Alexander Guajardo, who just finished his freshman year at UC Irvine.

On the women’s side, Canadian Isabella Marton, 18, recorded a 7-5, 6-1 victory over top-seeded Georgia international Sofia Shapatava, 37. Santa Monica-born Monika Ekstrand, is the highest remaining women’s singles seed after the No. 2 seed and Stanford sophomore-to-be ousted 17-year-old Rolling Hills Estates resident Tia Messerli, 6-2, 7-6(3).

Lakewood native Salma Ewing, the No. 3 seed who graduated from USC in 2022, registered a win over Kaitlyn Carnicella via injury retirement with Ewing about to close out the match at 6-4, 4-6, 5-1.

Ladera Ranch resident and returning Notre Dame junior Bianca Molnar dispatched Paola Lopez, 7-6(5), 4-6, 6-0. In a matchup of two of Southern California’s top 16-year-olds, San Diego’s Yilin Chen, a rising senior at Westview High School, eliminated Aliso Viejo resident Camille Allegre, 6-1, 6-4.

To learn more about the SoCal Pro Series, go to socalproseries.com.