Kenzie Nguyen Opens with Singles & Doubles
Wins as Fifth Annual SoCal Pro Series Kicks Off

Former UCLA Star Kaylan Bigun & Bruin Sophomore Mayu Crossley Start Strong With Straight-Set Victories as Top Seeds in $15,000 Tournaments

Sure there is something to be said for the exciting experiences of traveling abroad, meeting new people and learning diverse cultures you might not ever have a chance to take part in again. But just ask 18-year-old recent high school graduate Kenzie Nguyen and she’ll choose playing tennis tournaments closer to home any day.

The Irvine resident Nguyen got off to a winning start in singles and doubles as the fifth annual SoCal Pro Series, hosted by USTA Southern California, kicked off at the Lakewood Tennis Center with the completion of the first round in singles and doubles. The International Tennis Federation (ITF) World Tour $15,000 men’s and women’s events that are part of the USTA Pro Circuit will make stops in Rolling Hills Estates, Irvine, Claremont, Rancho Santa Fe and San Diego over the next seven weeks. 

And that’s music to the ears of Nguyen, who is playing in her eighth career SoCal Pro Series tournament this week and a far cry from locations she’s played at since the fall, which include faraway countries Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam and even El Salvador.

“I was just telling my parents how grateful and happy I am that I will be playing close to home these next few weeks,” Nguyen said. “The level of comfort does play a factor [when playing close to home], and I just realized it more after traveling to other countries to play. It does make a huge difference.”

The Columbia-bound Nguyen beat UCLA junior Kate Fakih, 6-2, 6-4, as she continues her climb up the WTA world rankings ladder. After playing two seasons of high school tennis at Portola High in Irvine, Nguyen chose the independent study route attending online classes at ICL Academy. As a freshman, Nguyen won the CIF-Southern Section Individual Singles title.

Nguyen traveled to Southeast Asia with her mother Mary and qualified for two events in Singapore indoors and won one main-draw match in Thailand outdoors. “I really enjoyed it there,” Nguyen said, adding her father, Tom, traveled with the two to Vietnam in November for two tournaments.

Both her parents are immigrants from Vietnam. “You know the movie ‘Crazy Rich Asians’? Well, I was basically living that life in the moment. It was very eye opening.”

Last summer Nguyen played five of the seven SoCal Pro Series events and won her first WTA point with a main-draw singles win thanks to a USTA SoCal wild card at the University of San Diego. 

Nguyen will be joined at Columbia by twin sister Kylie, who recently played the Woody Hunt junior event in the South Bay. Kenzie said the two were basically a package deal. “It played a large factor in our decision,” Kenzie said. “With all the traveling I’ve done and some training in Florida I understood the family factor. I told my parents I didn’t care about this school or that, but that I just want my sister with me. I want to have someone there who is my best friend and who has been there my entire life.”

Next up for Nguyen is recent UCLA graduate Anne-Christine Lutkemeyer from Irvine. The two have faced each other once before in qualifying in what was Nguyen’s first-ever ITF pro event in 2023 at the Rancho Santa Fe SoCal Pro Series when she was just 15. Lutkemeyer won the match, 6-3, 6-4.

“I watched her through her college career and I’m excited to see where I stand against her,” Nguyen said.

Lutkemeyer is currently ranked No. 779 in the world rankings and beat qualifier Elvira Juravliova, who played at Loyola Marymount and is from the Eastern European country of Moldova, 6-0, 6-3.

Lutkemeyer is one of three UCLA Bruins in the second round as top-seed Mayu Crossley beat qualifier Sofia Jane Thorne from Australia, 6-2, 6-3. Crossley had a successful first year for the Bruins as she was named the Big Ten Freshman of the Year playing No. 2 behind No. 1 Lutkemeyer all season.

In 2022, Crossley became the first Japanese player to win the ITF Grade A Orange Bowl junior title, and two weeks earlier had claimed the prestigious Grade 1 Eddie Herr.

Wild card Olivia Center, a UCLA junior from South Pasadena, had an impressive first-round win over former US Open junior champion Katherine Hui from San Diego, 6-1, 6-4. The former Stanford player Hui has battled injuries the past few years and as a 17-year-old wild-card entry, was the first female to earn a WTA ranking point in the very first SoCal Pro Series event back in 2022 at Rancho Santa Fe. 

Dasha Plekhanova, the No. 2 seed from Canada is 22 years old and seeking her first ITF pro title, eliminated 15-year-old Anya Arora from Newport Beach, 6-2, 6-3.

Nguyen and her doubles partner Midori Castillo Meza from Chula Vista eked out a third-set 10-8 tiebreaker on Tuesday and Castillo Meza joined Nguyen in the second round with a straight-set win over Canadian teenager Isabella Marton, 6-4, 6-3.

Equally as impressive was 16-year-old Armira Kockinis’ first-round victory over qualifier Virginia Crocker, 7-5, 6-3. The pride of La Habra Heights earned a wild card into the main draw by making the final of the pre-qualifying Lakewood event.

On the men’s side San Diego’s Alex Guajardo also earned his way into the main draw by making the pre-qualifying final and took advantage big-time earning his first ATP point in only his second ITF pro tour event with a win over wild card William Kleege, the North San Diego native and San Diego State sophomore, 6-2, 6-7 (4), 6-2.

Former UCLA standout Kaylan Bigun from West Hollywood is top-seeded this week in singles. The former French Open junior champ started out with a solid 6-2, 6-1 win over Aleksa Ciric from Serbia.

An amazing six of eight men’s qualifiers kept on winning Wednesday as each of the half-dozen qualifiers posted their third win in as many days. The winners with college affiliation and where they are from included: Vit Kalina (an Alabama sophomore from the Czech Republic), Marko Mesarovic (Clemson senior from Texas), Iiro Vasa (University of San Diego from Finland), Will Mayew (Louisville/North Carolina from Cary, N.C.), Oliver Ojakaar (senior at Texas from Estonia) and Lucas Marionneau (Texas sophomore from France).

Ozan Baris, who helped Michigan State win the Big Ten Conference title at The Ojai in April, took out No. 2 seeded Dmitry Popko from Kazakhstan, 6-3, 6-1. A two-time NCAA final four finisher, Baris reached the semifinals in 2024 and the finals in 2025, becoming the first MSU player to play in a national singles final.

In other men’s action, USC sophomore Max Exsted upset No. 5 Miles Jones from Marina Del Rey, 7-6 (4), 6-4, and in another upset current UC-Berkeley assistant coach Theo Dean beat 20-year-old Boca Raton resident Tristan Stringer, the No. 6 seed, 3-6, 7-5, 6-0. Former UC-Irvine standout Noah Zamora from San Diego, the No. 8 seed, moved on with a 6-4, 6-3 win over 17-year-old Roshan Santosh from Newbury Park. UCLA’s Spencer Johnson also just dropped seven games in his 6-2, 7-5 victory over Miles Clark from Rancho Cucamonga.

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