RANCHO SANTA FE, October 8, 2022 (by Steve Pratt)

Seeking her first USTA Pro Circuit singles title above the $25,000 level, 18-year-old Southern California native Katrina Scott came back to defeat Nao Hibino of Japan, 2-6, 7-5, 6-2, on Friday in the quarterfinals at the second annual Rancho Santa Fe Open, a USTA Women’s Pro Circuit $80,000 event which will conclude on Sunday at the Rancho Santa Fe Tennis Club.

Scott, ranked No. 186 in the world, won her first singles titles on the pro level earlier this year taking home wins at Dallas, Columbus and Daytona Beach, each $25,000 events. In August, Scott made it to the semifinals of a WTA $125,000 in Concord, Mass. She will next face Australian Storm Sanders in the second semifinal not before 12:30 p.m. PT. The qualifier Sanders won her fifth singles match in as many days as she beat American Ashlyn Krueger, 6-2, 6-3, in a quarterfinal match.

Mexico’s Marcela Zacarias continued her impressive week as won in both singles and doubles on Friday. She ended 17-year-old qualifier Alex Eala’s run with a straight-set win over the recent US Open Girls’ Junior champion. Zacarias will next meet 19-year-old Floridan Elvina Kalieva, who ousted Russian Diana Shnaider, 6-0, 6-3.

In doubles, the top-seeded team of Zacarias and former USC All-American Giuliana Olmos, a former US Open mixed doubles finalist who is ranked No. 7 in the world in doubles, advanced to Sunday’s final as the tandem beat local San Diego product Katherine Hui and Pepperdine’s Janice Tjen, 6-1, 7-6 (3).

Saturday, October 8, will be Second Serve Saturday at the RSF Open with a kids’ clinic for juniors ages 5 to 14 starting at 9:30 a.m. CEO and Co-Founder Ayanna Shah announced that players from the Second Serve program will attend the tournament, and that local juniors will have the opportunity to hit with some of the top professional women’s players competing in the tournament. For more information on Second Serve, go to: www.secondserve.org.