SAN DIEGO, July 6, 2026 (Media Release)
Bryce Nakashima has been present for so many of the local tennis highlights his older brother, Brandon, has achieved along his ascent to joining the world’s elite on the ATP Tour and during his ATP journey.
The roles were reversed on Sunday, when the legend of the Nakashima family name at Barnes Tennis Center grew by another champion in closing the penultimate week of the 2026 SoCal Pro Series.
Bryce Nakashima had to go through his Ohio State tennis family to earn his first professional men’s singles crown, emerging with a 6-2, 7-6(2) victory over his Buckeyes doubles partner, Aidan Kim, in the final of the $15,000 USTA Pro Circuit and World Tennis Tour men’s singles event managed by USTA Southern California.
“I started growing up playing here, every junior tournament at Barnes, so I guess you can say it’s kind of special that the first one came here,” said Bryce Nakashima, the 22-year-old San Diego native. “It’s good to have my brother in attendance. A lot of times he’s traveling and he doesn’t get to see me play, or the time changes don’t line up. It’s good that he was here and he got to see it.”
Along with Brandon Nakashima – whose lone ATP singles title came at the 2022 San Diego Open at Barnes Tennis Center – those on hand for Nakashima’s maiden pro title were Nakashima’s father, Wes, his mother, Chris, and Jack Anthrop, Ohio State’s 2025-26 senior captain who was Bryce Nakashima’s partner for two of Nakashima’s five World Tennis Tour doubles crowns.
“It’s awesome. To see him (Bryce) win his first professional title here, where also I won my first ATP title, it’s pretty special. It’s a special place,” said Brandon Nakashima, the ATP Tour’s No. 31-ranked player in the world who arrived home in San Diego Saturday after reaching the second round at Wimbledon last week. “It’s been a while since I’ve seen him compete … probably one of the college matches last year. It’s good to see him play.”
A mainstay in the Buckeyes’ doubles lineup throughout the 2025-26 NCAA season, Nakashima and Kim posted a 29-7 record (9-1 in Big Ten play).
In singles, Kim was the Buckeyes’ No. 1 player, a 2026 NCAA Division I All-American and an All-Big Ten First Team selection who finished the season No. 14 in the ITA’s national singles rankings. Nakashima spent most of the past collegiate season in the Buckeyes’ Nos. 4 and 5 singles slots.
Nakashima and Kim, both returning as senior leaders for Ohio State in the fall, had never previously played each other in a tournament setting. Both admitted they’ve played countless practice sets together in Columbus, split “as 50-50 as you could think,” according to Nakashima.
Added Nakashima: “I didn’t see him too much. I don’t think we ever thought about (playing each other) until maybe the semifinals. But our (Ohio State) team group chat is going off, probably, right now with all the funny stuff. It’s all respect. Tomorrow can be a completely different match. Today, I was given it and I’ll take it today.
“It’s always fun playing your teammates. I know him, his weaknesses. He knows mine. It can be a little bit, like, of a ‘does he know that I know that he knows this’- type thing, but the more you fall into it, the more it messes you up. I just tried to stick to what I was doing well and what gameplan we had to execute.”
Said Kim: “It felt like another match because we’ve played, like, a million times. We’ve played a lot of practice sets. The intensity is always there. He just played better than me today. He’s really confident. He played the right way. Our coach was really happy that both of us were in the final because he knew that one of us was going to win.”
Nakashima bagged 15 ATP Rranking points and a $2,160 check for the victory while Kim earned eight ATP points and $1,272 for finishing runner-up.
The only player to have stopped Nakashima in his three 2026 SoCal Pro Series events is UCLA No. 1 Spencer Johnson, who won the singles titles in Irvine and Claremont the previous two weeks. Nakashima reached his first pro singles final in Irvine, and then fell to Johnson again four days later in the second round in Claremont.
Said Nakashima: “The results are starting to come in. I’ve put in a lot of work, off court, on court, at Ohio State, with my coach. We never said it was about the wins. It was just about getting better each day, and the results will come after that.”
Johnson took this past week off but is expected to join Nakashima in the upcoming week’s singles draw for the 2026 SoCal Pro Series finale at Rancho Santa Fe Tennis Club.
Pasadena resident Kate Fakih, 19, reached her first World Tennis Tour pro women’s singles final on Sunday but could not overcome Russian Alina Shcherbinina’s tour de force of this year’s SoCal Pro Series. The University of Oklahoma product from Moscow defeated Fakih, 6-3, 7-6(1) and became the first woman to win three singles championships in one SoCal Pro Series season.
“We played OU (Oklahoma) in college and she played one of my teammates in the dual and she was just very good. I remember that,” Fakih said. “She was just relentlessly attacking and she got me on my heels a little more than I would have liked. She served very well and she returned extremely well.”
Shcherbinina, 22, gained her first pro singles crowns at Jack Kramer Club and Racquet Club of Irvine in consecutive weeks in June. She won seven matches over seven days as a qualifier this week, without losing a set, and in Week 3 in the South Bay. She has only dropped one set (via tiebreaker) in her three championship runs.
A UCLA returning junior, Fakih is encouraged by the progression of her game this summer, which included her winning a first pro doubles title on the SoCal Pro Series in Irvine two weeks ago. She will also play this upcoming week in Rancho Santa Fe.
The only other time Fakih played singles on a weekend in the SoCal Pro Series came as a 16-year-old in 2023, when she lost a semifinal to Chanel Simmonds, who was this week’s tournament director.
“This is great for all SoCal residents. It’s just amazing to get really high-level matches,” Fakih said of the SoCal Pro Series. “We get to see our friends; I saw all of my (UCLA) teammates here. A lot of these players are in college so we get to spar against them. Every moment you experience is a win and I’m just so grateful to be here.”
The victorious Shcherbinina claimed 15 WTA Ranking points and a $2,352 check while runner-up Fakih received 10 WTA points and $1,470
Saturday’s women’s doubles final featured the draw’s Nos. 1-2 seeds and was claimed by 2026 UCLA graduate Anne-Christine Lutkemeyer and Ukrainian doubles specialist Anita Sahdiieva. The top seed rolled to a 6-1, 6-3 win over second-seeded Salma Ewing, a former USC standout from Lakewood, and Canadian Alexandra Vagramov.
It was the second World Tennis Tour pro doubles title for Lutkemeyer, an Irvine native, and the 14th doubles crown for the 22-year-old Sahdiieva, with nine of those coming on the SoCal Pro Series since 2023.
Lutkemeyer and Sahdiieva earned 15 WTA Tour doubles ranking points each and a $955 prize while Vagramov and Ewing – who has played in the SoCal Pro Series since its inception year and won her only pro doubles title with Eryn Cayetano at Jack Kramer Club in 2022 – received 10 WTA points and split $515 in earnings.
USC’s Max Exsted and Noah Johnston rallied for a 3-6, 6-4, 11-9 victory over 2026 Yale graduate Vignesh Gogineni and New Zealander Matt Shearer to win Saturday’s men’s doubles final.
It was the fifth World Tennis Tour doubles title for Exsted, a 2026 All-Big Ten Freshman Team selection, and the first pro title for Johnston, a returning sophomore to the University of Georgia. Exsted and Johnston earned 15 ATP Tour doubles ranking points apiece and split a $930 winner’s prize. Gogineni and Shearer collected eight ATP points and shared a $540 check.
To learn more about the SoCal Pro Series, go to socalproseries.com.
