ROLLING HILLS ESTATES, Calif., Jun21, 2023 (by Steve Pratt)

Fourteen-year-old Thea Frodin took advantage of her SoCal Pro Series wild card and won her first WTA singles ranking point on Tuesday beating fellow Southern California teenager and recent high school graduate Isabella Chhiv, 6-3, 6-3, in the first round of the ITF World Tennis Tour W15 event being played this week at the Kramer Club in the South Bay.

Frodin didn’t appear overly excited after match point, calmly shaking Chhiv’s hand after the match.

“I don’t have that much pressure on me this week just because most of these girls are a lot older than me, and I think that’s a good thing,” said the soft-spoken Frodin, who recently completed her eighth-grade school year and is being home-schooled. “It’s fun and I’m pretty excited about getting my first point.”

Frodin gained notoriety two years ago as she played the young junior tennis double for Serena Williams in the movie “King Richard.”

The Woodland Hills resident is coached by former USC star and NCAA singles champion Cecil Mamiit in Burbank and also works with the USTA National coaches in Carson. She was coached on-site by Johnny Parkes on Tuesday.

Frodin will next face No. 2 seed Savanna Ly-Nguyen from Vietnam, a four-year player at Washington State who graduated in 2022.

“I hadn’t really envisioned winning my first point because I’m so young and I haven’t set that many high expectations on myself,” said Frodin, whose opponent Chhiv recently graduated from Portola High in Irvine and is headed to Princeton in the fall on a tennis scholarship. “Not yet. But, yeah, it’s pretty cool to get my first point.”

Frodin lost in the first round of doubles during Week 1 at the Rancho Santa Fe SoCal Pro Series as a wild card. “I’m going to play Lakewood and probably the USTA Girls’ 18s Nationals at Barnes Tennis Center,” she said of her summer schedule.

SoCal Pro Series Week 2 women’s singles winner Fangran Tian, this year’s NCAA singles champion from UCLA, opened up with a 6-2, 6-2 first-round win over Australia’s Zara Larke on Tuesday. A finalist in Week 1, Tian could face Frodin in the quarterfinals if both win their second-round matches.

Former UCLA star Taylor Johnson returned for another week of SoCal Pro Series action. The qualifying wild card Johnson advanced to the main draw when her opponent Makenna Thiel was forced to retire with Johnson leading 4-1 in the first set due to injury. Johnson saved three match points on Monday in her first-round qualifying match against Reece Carter that ended, 4-6, 6-4, [17-15] in Johnson’s favor.

Other winners Tuesday in the main draw included UCLA’s Kimmi Hance of Torrance, Rancho Santa Fe’s Hudson Rivera and Nico Godsick, the son of the former U.S. Fed Cup Captain and two-time Grand Slam champion Mary Joe Fernandez.

Daily tournament admission and parking is free to the public at all SoCal Pro Series events. The SoCal Pro Series’ remaining tournament dates and locations are:

• Through Sunday – Jack Kramer Club, Rolling Hills Estates
• June 26-July 2 – Racquet Club of Irvine, Irvine
• July 3-9 – Lakewood Tennis Center, Lakewood
• July 10-16 – Lakewood Tennis Center, Lakewood

To learn more about the SoCal Pro Series, go to: https://www.ustasocal.com/proseries.