Keegan Smith Notches First-Round Win in San Diego
Homecoming as 2025 SoCal Pro Series Begins

Men’s and Women’s $15,000 ITF World Tennis Tour Events South Pasadena’s Olivia Center, Calabasas’ Dominique Rolland Gain First WTA/ATP Ranking Points with Round 1 Wins at SoCal Pro Series Opener

San Diego native Keegan Smith doesn’t make a habit of playing $15,000-purse entry-level tournaments on the USTA Pro Circuit and International Tennis Federation (ITF) World Tennis Tour anymore, but he is all too happy to make an exception for the SoCal Pro Series.

Watching him congregate with his immediate family, sister-in-law, two aunts, niece, and friends from his UCLA days in the ensuing minutes after the Point Loma High School graduate recorded a 6-3, 6-2 first-round victory over Alan Magadan at Barnes Tennis Center, it was easy to understand why.

“It feels really good. Just being back in my hometown and seeing other people I know and that know me that, kind of, humble me. Seeing my family, it’s so much love for them that it kind of brings me back to better times and keeps me in a better headspace,” said Smith, who has moved back home to San Diego after spending a couple years living in Los Angeles.”

“I’ve been traveling a lot. A lot of time alone and a lot of, honestly, depressing times. It’s cool to be back and, in a way, kind of showcase (to my family) what I’ve been doing. I’ve been improving a lot. It’s cool to show them different shots.”

The 2025 SoCal Pro Series, back for the fourth consecutive year, began this week at San Diego’s tennis mecca, Barnes Tennis Center. It brought Smith back home after he spent a large portion of 2024 playing in Asia and playing ITF Futures events in England and Greece over the past four months.

Five years removed from winning the 2019 NCAA Division I individual doubles championship with ATP Tour pro Maxime Cressy, Smith concentrates on his singles game nowadays. He isn’t playing in the 16-team doubles tournament this week, though he has four ITF Futures doubles titles, most recently over consecutive weeks at last year’s SoCal Pro Series in Lakewood.

As the No. 2 seed in singles this week, Smith sees a real opportunity to bag his third ITF Futures singles title, and what would be his first since 2022.

“It’s definitely my highest (singles form) right now. I’m seeing my coach, Angel Lopez. Working on my volleys and working on my serve. I rate it high. I feel like I’m playing really good. I just got to stay in shape these next few matches and hopefully I can do some damage and win it. I’m just trying to take it a match at a time and not get ahead of myself, but I would love to win some of these (SoCal Pro Series events).”

Smith, 26, plans to play the first four weeks of this SoCal Pro Series, including Weeks 2-3 at the University of San Diego and Week 4 at Rancho Santa Fe Tennis Club, before returning to Europe to train and play.

San Diegan Rohan Murali, a Santana High graduate who grew up on the Barnes Tennis Center courts and now plies his tennis trade for Harvard, advanced to Thursday’s second round on Tuesday with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Nav Dayal, an 18-year-old junior player from Long Beach who was making his ITF men’s main draw debut. Murali draws University of Michigan product Andrew Fenty in Thursday’s second round.

Ladera Ranch resident and UCLA sophomore Spencer Johnson was two points away (in a second-set tiebreaker) from ousting the tournament’s top seed before Hawaiian Andre Ilagan pulled out a 4-6, 7-6 (6), 6-3 victory. Ilagan won the first of his three ITF Futures singles crowns at the 2023 SoCal Pro Series in Lakewood.

On the women’s side, 18-year-old San Marino resident Tianmei Wang – set to graduate from San Marino High in the coming days with a berth on the Stanford University tennis team waiting for her in the fall – tallied a 6-3, 7-5 first-round triumph over Tanvi Narendran and faces top-seeded Serban Dejana Radanovic (No. 516 WTA ranking) in Thursday’s second round.

Pasadena native Tori Kinard, the women’s draw’s oldest player at 37, also advanced to the second round following a 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 win over Jane Dunyon. Kinard meets Duke-bound Junior player Claire An in the second round.

Among the first-round highlights in doubles was Tuesday’s ‘all-San Diego’ matchup in which San Diegan twins Jayson and Michael Blando, Rancho Bernardo High graduates who past played collegiately together at UC Riverside and then the University of Utah, scratched out a 6-7 (5), 6-1, 10-3 (10-point, third-set tiebreaker) victory over University of San Diego graduate student Savriyan Danilov and San Diego native and San Diego State University junior Eugenio Gonzalez Fitzmaurice.

Players to Watch

Dominique Rolland – The 6-foot-4 Calabasas resident and UC Santa Barbara junior who transferred in after winning the 2023 Pac-12 Conference title as a freshman at Arizona earned his first ATP world ranking point Wednesday with a 6-4, 6-1 first-round win over Max Sheldon, of Michigan State. Rolland, who faces Keegan Smith in the second round, withdrew from a SoCal Pro Series pre-qualifier for Week 3 at the University of San Diego to enter qualifying for this week’s event at Barnes Tennis Center.

Said Rolland: “I’m glad I withdrew. I’ve been playing these SoCal Pro Series for the past two years. Now I’ve qualified (for the main draw) and I finally won. It feels great. It’s like a dream. I feel like I’m playing the best tennis of my life right now.”

Olivia Center – The 19-year-old South Pasadena resident and UCLA freshman who played in the 2023 U.S. Open women’s doubles main draw and the 2024-25 NCAA Division I women’s doubles final with Bruins teammate Kate Fakih, earned her first WTA world ranking point by outlasting Clemson University’s Amelie Smejkalova, 6-4, 4-6, 6-4, in Wednesday’s first round. Center, who was in the Bruins’ lineup for April’s Big Ten Tournament in April, faces Brandy Walker, of Brea, in Thursday’s second round.

Said Center: “It’s pretty exciting. I think that’s cool that I can say that I’ve gotten (ranking) points. I think these (SoCal Pro Series events) are really cool and it’s nice that they’re so close. “I think the last six months taught me a lot. There are different types of pressures. I had to learn how to manage that, and I think that’s helped me coming into this tournament. I feel more calm on the court and I feel like I’m handling pressure points better because I’ve been through it at such high (levels), like at NCAAs.”

Remaining 2025 SoCal Pro Series Schedule

– June 2-8 – University of San Diego, San Diego
– June 9-15 – University of San Diego, San Diego
– June 16-22 – Rancho Santa Fe Tennis Club, Rancho Santa Fe
– June 23-29 – Lakewood Tennis Center, Lakewood
– June 30-July 6 – Jack Kramer Club, Rolling Hills Estates
– July 7-13 – San Diego State University, San Diego

Through the first three years of the SoCal Pro Series, 29 women and 16 men who are either Southern California residents or played collegiately in Southern California have earned their first WTA/ATP world ranking point through the circuit, including eight females and four males who achieved the feat in 2024.

Southern California players can register to play in pre-qualifying events for a chance to earn their way into the main draw as wild cards. The upcoming pre-qualifying schedule includes: May 30-June 3, Lakewood Tennis Center; June 13-15, Jack Kramer Club; June 20-22, San Diego State University. SoCal players can register for events at: ustasocal.com/proseries.

–

To learn more, go to: ustasocal.com/proseries
Follow along on Instagram: instagram.com/socalproseries. Like the Facebook page: facebook.com/socalproseries.