RANCHO SANTA FE, July 9, 2026 (Media Release)
Observing the final two games of her first-round match in the 2026 SoCal Pro Series finale at Rancho Santa Fe Tennis Club is all one needs to know about San Diego native Alyssa Ahn.
She was being run ragged, side-to-side and to the net and back, and constantly forced to defend what was the point of the match; one she seemed out of several times. Winning that point gave her a service break and the opportunity to serve for the match. She then found herself having to dig out of a 0-40 hole, which probably didn’t seem as big of a hole as being down 1-4 in the decisive set.
Ahn doesn’t know when, or how, to quit. Instead, she found a way to win the final five games of Wednesday’s match on the way to a 6-3, 2-6, 6-4 victory over UCLA transfer Jessica Bernales in the first round of the $15,000 USTA Pro Circuit and World Tennis tour event hosted and managed by USTA Southern California.
The manner in which the fifth-seeded Ahn won was a nice pick-me-up in following last week’s first-round defeat at Barnes Tennis Center, which came three days after reaching her second SoCal Pro Series singles final in Claremont.
“It was really important for me. First rounds are always tough, you know, to get the nerves out,” Ahn said. “The tennis wasn’t necessarily the best today, but I think I just fought really hard in that third set to pull it out.
“It’s sad that this SoCal Pro Series is coming to an end, but just hoping for as many matches as possible … to help me work on my competitiveness and mental toughness. I don’t how many years I’ve been playing these but I’m ready to win one, my first title. It’s not easy but I’m really trying. That’s a big goal of mine.”
Ahn has played all five years of the SoCal Pro Series, dating back to entering four tournaments in the circuit’s maiden year of 2022, and a history of playing long points and some long matches. What she lacks toward a power game, given her young age and 5-foot-4 stature, she makes up for with an ahead-of-her-years combination of fitness and mental makeup that is required of a tennis player to reach the heights she has scaled at 19 years old.
Since graduating from Torrey Pines High School in 2025, Ahn reached her first SoCal Pro Series final at the University of San Diego, received a wild card into the 2025 US Open women’s singles main draw by virtue of winning the 2025 USTA Billie Jean King Girls’ 18s National Championships, and she just wrapped up a freshman year at Stanford that saw her play No. 2 singles for the Cardinal.
Said Ahn: “It was unbelievable. I never really imagined myself to be playing in the (US Open) main draw so it was really surreal. Surrounded by top-level pros. In the locker room, Iga’s (Swiatek) locker was right next to mine, which is, like, crazy. Just walking around amongst, like, the best players in the world that I watched on TV was something that I’ll never forget. I actually think about it, like, a lot as motivation to somehow try to get back to that level and stage.
“And just hanging out with my coach and my family. My whole family came out, so that was a special moment.”
Elsewhere in the first round of the women’s draw, UCLA returning junior and Pasadena resident Kate Fakih opened this week with a 6-2, 6-3 win over wild card and El Segundo resident Sophia Webster, the niece of American tennis legend and 14-time Grand Slam champion Pete Sampras.
Webster also happens to be the daughter of UCLA women’s tennis coach Stella Sampras Webster, who coaches Fakih in Westwood. Fakih hopes Coach Webster won’t hold Wednesday’s result against her.
“I really hope so,” Fakih joked. “She (Coach) was supposed to come and then she said, ‘Maybe it’s better that I didn’t come.’ She knew it would be a good match. I hope she forgives me. I practice with (Sophia) a lot and she’s my really, really good friend.”
Fakih’s looking to finish the SoCal Pro Series strong in following up on her first professional singles runner-up result on the SoCal Pro Series last week at Barnes Tennis Center two weeks after achieving her first pro doubles title on the SoCal Pro Series in Irvine.
“It’s definitely helped my confidence a lot, just playing here,” Fakih said. “I feel more match-tough and ready. Just a lot more confidence.”
Russian Alina Shcherbinina, who beat Fakih last week to make it three singles titles in three 2026 SoCal Pro Series tournaments, rolled to a 6-1, 6-1 victory over 17-year-old wild card Kingsley Wolf, of Manhattan Beach.
Natalie Kha, a 17-year-old from Chino Hills who has committed to USC before her high school senior year, established a WTA Tour singles ranking after earning a first ranking point in dispatching 16-year-old Los Angeles resident Ariana Morris, 6-0, 6-2.
Encinitas resident Isabella Foshee, 22, and Aliso Viejo resident Camille Allegre, 16, recorded their first SoCal Pro Series main draw victories in the two years they have played the circuit. Foshee dispatched Santa Monica native and returning USC junior Simone Kay, 6-3, 6-4. Allegre downed North Carolina recruit Avery Nguyen, 6-4, 6-0.
Zoe Olmos, a 2025 San Diego State graduate who began her collegiate career at Cal State Fullerton, also earned her first WTA Tour singles ranking point Wednesday after eliminating Mexico’s Claudia Sofia Martinez Solis, 6-2, 6-3.
Jo-Yee Chan, who finished her college career at San Diego State this year as the Aztecs’ No. 1, advanced to the second round on Tuesday after outlasting USC returning sophomore and Rancho Palos Verdes resident Krisha Mahendran, 7-5, 2-6, 7-5.
On the men’s side, Ladera Ranch resident and UCLA returning senior Spencer Johnson returned to the SoCal Pro Series as this week’s top seed and coasted to a 6-4, 6-2 victory on Tuesday over wildcard Nile Ung, a high school senior from San Diego already committed to Yale University. Johnson took last week off of the SoCal Pro Series after winning consecutive singles championships in Irvine and Claremont.
Second-seeded Noah Zamora, a San Diego native and 2021 St. Augustine High School graduate edged Australia’s Benjamin O’Connell, 6-4, 5-7, 6-4, in Wednesday’s first round. Zamora, who graduated from UC Irvine as the Anteaters’ No. 1 player in 2025, has played in all seven SoCal Pro Series events in 2026. He reached last week’s semifinals to go with two other quarterfinal appearances.
Zamora’s second-round opponent is UCLA returning junior and Thousand Oaks resident Rudy Quan, who coasted past Canadian Henry Ren, 6-1, 6-2.
Stian Klaassen, the Dutchman who completed his University of San Diego career in May as the No. 2 player in the Toreros’ singles lineup, blanked Irvine resident and incoming Yale recruit William Zhang, 6-0, 6-0.
Carrying his school’s flag on his own throughout this summer’s SoCal Pro Series, Klaassen is the latest in a lineup of Toreros to make a successful imprint on the circuit. He follows past SoCal Pro Series singles champions August Holmgren (who won the inaugural SoCal Pro Series event in Rancho Santa Fe in 2022) and Oliver Tarvet.
Klaassen was a singles finalist in a 2025 SoCal Pro Series event hosted at USD and hopes for a return to weekend play in his farewell to the SoCal Pro Series, a swing of events he has appreciated.
“I have to come back to USD for one semester (to finish my degree). Next week, I will go home to Europe to train, and then I need to figure out whether I want to do this (join the World Tennis Tour full-time),” said Klaassen, citing the concern of travel expenses as a touring pro. “It’s easy for me to play these (SoCal Pro Series) tournaments because I am so close. Here, I am 30 minutes away.”
San Diegan and Ohio State returning senior Bryce Nakashima, last week’s SoCal Pro Series singles champion at Barnes Tennis Center, fell to Northern Californian Theo Dean, 4-6, 2-6, in the opening round. Dean, the No. 5 seed, was the Men’s Open singles champion at the prestigious 124th Ojai Tournament in April.
In an all-San Diego County clash, Rancho Santa Fe resident and 2017 Torrey Pines High School graduate Jacob Brumm breezed past 2019 Rancho Bernardo High School graduate Michael Blando, 6-2, 6-2. Brumm, the No. 7 seed, won his lone pro singles title in a 2023 SoCal Pro Series event at the University of San Diego.
Long Beach resident and incoming UCLA recruit Nav Dayal advanced to the second round following a convincing 6-1, 6-2 triumph over Mexico’s Rafael De Alba.
To learn more about the SoCal Pro Series, go to socalproseries.com.
