SAN DIEGO, July 4, 2026 (Media Release)

Noah Zamora has been a SoCal Pro Series ironman, having played six consecutive weeks on the circuit this spring and summer. Riding high in form, confidence and the adrenaline of playing in his native San Diego, the 2021 St. Augustine High School graduate is assured he has enough left in the tank to kickstart his budding pro tennis career with newfound tennis glory.

The third-seeded Zamora advanced to this week’s SoCal Pro Series men’s singles semifinals in breezing by University of Alabama junior and Slovenian Matic Kriznik, 6-3, 6-1, at Barnes Tennis Center in Friday’s quarterfinal stage of the $15,000 USTA Pro Circuit and World Tennis Tour event hosted and managed by USTA Southern California.

Zamora, 23, has now reached three semifinals and a final on the World Tennis Tour since graduating from UC Irvine as the Anteaters’ No. 1 player in 2025. In his quest for a first pro singles crown, Zamora has yet to concede more than three games in a set through three straight-set wins this week.

“We’re feeling good. We’re ready to go. It’s been a pretty lights-out week so far,” Zamora said. “I’m honestly surprising myself with how I’m playing and competing, and I still feel like the best is yet to come. The confidence is just building exponentially.”

Zamora’s only other SoCal Pro Series semifinal appearance came a year ago at Jack Kramer Club in Rolling Hills Estates. This weekend means more because he’s playing in the familiar, friendly confines of Barnes Tennis Center, where an image of Zamora appears on a promotional banner at its main entrance.

“I’ve spent countless summers and countless practice days here,” Zamora said. “I just want to give it my all these last two weeks since it’s in San Diego. I love it out here at Barnes and at Rancho Santa Fe (next week’s SoCal Pro Series finale).

“It just was a big goal of mine to play the whole SoCal swing. I had an early exit from last week’s tournament so I’m feeling really well. Some early exits on some weeks helped me recover. I just want to save my best tennis for last.”

Zamora’s win sets up an all-San Diego semifinal showdown at 10 a.m. on Saturday with Bryce Nakashima, a returning senior to Ohio State. Nakashima reached his first pro tournament singles final at the SoCal Pro Series stop in Irvine two weeks ago.

Playing in his third consecutive SoCal Pro Series tournament, the only player to have stopped Nakashima in singles is UCLA No. 1 Spencer Johnson, who won the singles titles in Irvine and Claremont the past two weeks.

Fitting of a July 4 spectacular, Zamora expects plenty of on-court fireworks between two who rely on big serves and big forehands, and that “there will be some people (spectators) there.”

“A very, very heavy-hitting match,” Zamora predicts. “A lot of big hitting. A lot of big serves. Never played him or practiced with him. But I feel like I’m going to like his game style. I like someone who plays fast and can hit the ball with pace.

“I’ve been really figuring out my identity on the singles court, playing to my strengths. I realized I have to focus on what I’m good at. Using these weapons that I am comfortable with.”

Nakashima, 22, will be well-rested for the semifinals. He was a beneficiary of a quarterfinal walkover when his opponent, recent Yale graduate Vignesh Gogineni, pulled out with an injury.

The other men’s 10 a.m. semifinal will pit Nakashima’s Ohio State teammate Aidan Kim, the Buckeyes’ No. 1 player and a 2026 NCAA Division I All-American and All-Big Ten First Team selection, against 2024 SMU graduate Liam Krall.

Kim, the No. 1 seed, ousted sixth-seeded Northern Californian Theo Dean, 7-6(2), 6-2. Krall outlasted fellow New York native turned Irvine resident and University of Illinois product Alexander Petrov, 6-4, 3-6, 6-4.

In the women’s singles draw, Lakewood native Salma Ewing, the No. 4 seed who graduated from USC in 2022, dispatched Irvine resident Anya Arora, 6-4, 6-4, in a tight match. Ewing, 25, advanced to her first World Tennis Tour semifinal since participating in a $35,000 event in Las Vegas in February.

Arora, 15, reached her first quarterfinal in her seventh pro tournament main draw appearance. She made her pro debut on the SoCal Pro Series last year after winning the Girls’ 14s doubles championship at the 2025 Easter Bowl.

Ewing won her only pro singles title in 2017 and played her second quarterfinal in as many weeks on the SoCal Pro Series. Ewing has played in the SoCal Pro Series since its inception in 2022, when she won her only pro doubles title with Eryn Cayetano at Jack Kramer Club.

Ewing will bid for a weekend sweep of the women’s singles and doubles titles as she and Alexandra Vagramov defeated UCLA Bruins Kayla Chung (UCLA returning junior) and Ahmani Guichard (returning senior), 7-5, 6-7(5), 10-6, in a Friday semifinal. The No. 2 seed will meet 2026 UCLA graduate Anne-Christine Lutkemeyer and Ukraine’s Anita Sahdiieva, as the top seed knocked off Argentina’s Gala Arangio and Nigerian Oyinlomo Quadre, 6-4, 7-6(4).

UCLA returning junior and Pasadena resident Kate Fakih, 19, reached her third pro tournament semifinal following a 6-4, 0-6, 6-2 triumph over Valley Village resident Maria Aytoyan, 17, in an all-Los Angeles County matchup of teenagers.

The only other time Fakih played in a SoCal Pro Series singles semifinal came as a 16-year-old in 2023, when she lost to Chanel Simmonds, who is this week’s tournament director at Barnes Tennis Center. Fakih seeks her first pro singles finals appearance two weeks after winning her first pro doubles title on the SoCal Pro Series in Irvine.

Aytoyan, verbally committed to attend Cal-Berkeley for the 2027-28 school year, has played the SoCal Pro Series in each of the past six weeks and also advanced to the quarterfinals in Week 3 at Jack Kramer Club. She was introduced to the SoCal Pro Series at 14, via a qualifying draw at Rancho Santa Fe Tennis Club in 2023. Since then, 10 of the 11 pro tournaments in which Aytoyan has featured in the main draw have come on her home circuit.

Jo-Yee Chan, who completed her collegiate career at San Diego State as the Aztecs’ No. 1 player this year, had her bid for a third singles semifinal appearance in a pro tournament fall short in a 3-6, 2-6 defeat to qualifier Alina Shcherbinina, of Moscow, Russia.

Shcherbinina, who meets Ewing in a 10 a.m. semifinal on Saturday, has been the top female performer on the 2026 SoCal Pro Series circuit. She is the series’ only two-time singles winner, having gained her first pro singles championships at Jack Kramer Club in the South Bay and Racquet Club of Irvine in consecutive weeks in June.

San Diego’s Katherine Hui, a 2023 Santa Fe Christian graduate, withdrew from her quarterfinal against Canadian Annabelle Xu. She is hopeful to play next week in Rancho Santa Fe. Xu will play Fakih in Saturday’s other 10 a.m. semifinal.

Hui recovered from surgery to repair a partially torn tendon and ligament in her left wrist earlier this year but she has recently been nursing an abdominal strain, which is what forced her to default from her second-round match at Lakewood Tennis Center four weeks ago on the SoCal Pro Series.

The men’s doubles final is set for 10 a.m. on Saturday. USC’s Max Exsted, a 2026 All-Big Ten Freshman Team selection, and Noah Johnston upend San Diego State returning sophomore William Kleege, a 2025 Torrey Pines High School graduate, and former Aztecs player Johannes Seeman, 6-3, 6-4. Exsted and Johnston, a returning sophomore to the University of Georgia, will face Gogineni and New Zealander Matt Shearer, 6-2, 6-2 winners over No. 2 seed Dean and 2026 UCLA graduate Aadarsh Tripathi.

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