ROLLING HILLS ESTATES, Calif, July 2, 2022 (by Steve Pratt)
Jack Kramer Club GM and this week’s SoCal Pro Circuit host and tournament director Peter Smith got the dream matchup everyone was hoping for Saturday – on both the men’s and women’s side at the fourth SoCal Pro Circuit stop.
Smith’s former No. 1 USC player, local favorite, Kramer Club member and top-seeded Brandon Holt will face his college rival and former UCLA No. 1 Gage Brymer of Irvine in the semifinals of the $15,000 ITF World Tennis Tour event Saturday. In the other semifinal, No. 2 Zachary Svajda, 19, of Hermosa Beach will take on qualifier and 18-year-old Fnu Nidunjianzan of China.
On the women’s side, 14-year-old wild card Iva Jovic of Torrance continued her great run winning her third straight match in her first pro tournament. The former Orange Bowl winner who is coached by Smith will take on UCLA’s Kimmi Hance of Torrance in the semifinals. Jovic made quick work of Russian Alina Shcherbinina, 6-1, 6-1 while the No. 6 seed Hance took out China’s No. 2 seed Jiangxue Han, 6-3, 6-4.
Top-seeded Ya Yi Yang of Taipei will play USC senior Eryn Cayetano in the other semifinal. Both women’s matches will take place at 11 a.m., followed by the men’s semifinals.
The No. 2 seeds in doubles, Holt and Svajda were forced to pull out of their doubles semifinal set for later in the evening Friday due to a minor foot injury from Holt. Smith said the move was only “precautionary” and that Holt would be ready for the semifinal showdown Saturday.
In one of the more memorable meetings Holt and Brymer during the college careers, the freshman Holt held off Brymer to clinch the Pac-12 Championship at The Ojai for the Trojans in 2015 as both teams were knotted at 3-all and it all came down to the final on the No. 1 court.
“Yeah, we all remember that one,” Smith said of the No. 3-seed. “Gage probably a little more than others. But he’s played so well since the start of the year. Good for him. He’s such a great guy and player.”
Svajda was set to play two matches Friday, but didn’t strike a ball all day. His singles quarterfinal opponent was No. 6 Khololwam Montsi of South Africa, who was forced to default because of a bad leg injury that occurred at the very end of his doubles match against Holt and Svajda on Thursday.
Brothers from Northern California, Aidan and Keenan Mayo will play teenagers Ethan Quinn and Daniel Vallejo in the doubles final after both men’s semifinals.
Bunyawi Thamchaiwat from Thailand will team with Yang in the doubles final as the pairing takes on the wild-card team of Cayetano and Salma Ewing.
Saturday’s singles semifinals and doubles finals matches will be live-streamed by Cracked Racquets. To listen to all the action, click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bi1Mp0LJKFs
