UCLA’s Quan and Johnson, USC’s Makk Connect
for First-Round Wins at RSF SoCal Pro Series

Mission Viejo’s Lani Chang, 14, Wins SoCal Pro Series Debut in Women’s Singles; Top Men’s and Women’s Singles Seeds Fall in First Round

School is out in Los Angeles and UCLA and USC’s top guns have shown up and are showing out for this fourth week of the SoCal Pro Series at Rancho Santa Fe Tennis Club.

UCLA’s Rudy Quan and USC’s Peter Makk, each school’s leading player from the recently concluded college season, and Spencer Johnson, who began the year as UCLA’s No. 1 singles player, won first-round singles matches in the $15,000-purse tournament on the USTA Pro Circuit and International Tennis Federation (ITF) World Tennis Tour.

This week marks Quan’s 2025 SoCal Pro Series debut. Quan, of Thousand Oaks, breezed by Englishman Finn Bass, 6-2, 6-2, on Tuesday. Makk, who plays under the Hungarian flag, cruised past No. 8 seed Quinn Vandecasteele, 6-4, 6-1. Johnson, of Ladera Ranch, coasted by sixth-seeded Noah Schachter, 6-3, 6-1, on Wednesday.

As the luck of the draw would have it, Quan and Makk face each other in Thursday’s second round. In three meetings during the 2025 NCAA season, each won once. Their duel in the third round of the NCAA Division I tournament in May was left unfinished in the third set while tied, 3-3.

“It’s pretty cool. Peter and I have gone through a lot of battles throughout the season,” said Quan, recently named the 2025 Big Ten Conference Freshman of the Year and the ITA Southwest Region Rookie of the Year. “He’s a really good player. I have a lot of respect for him.”

Their tie as famed crosstown rivals will always bind across all athletic endeavors, but there is an extraordinary twist to this week’s competition among Bruins and Trojans.

After Makk and Quan duel on Thursday morning, Makk will join forces with Johnson for the afternoon quarterfinals of the doubles draw. Both agreed on Monday to team up for doubles while competing through the qualifying stages of the singles draw.

The UCLA-USC duo united for a 6-1, 7-6(0) first-round victory over UC Santa Barbara’s Dominique Rolland and Dylan Martin on Tuesday. Perhaps there is an unspoken offseason truce between the collegiate rivals. No doubt, Johnson and Makk can imagine what sports fans must be thinking.

“I know, we were shocked too. I’ve never played with a Trojan,” Johnson said. “Honestly, off the court, I respect USC guys a lot and we’ve become friends with them since I’ve been there (at UCLA). It’s a healthy rivalry. It’s kind of funny, we were making jokes (during our match) and I was saying, ‘Fight On!’ and he’s saying, ‘Go Bruins!’”

UCLA enjoyed a banner season as Big Ten Conference newcomers. The Bruins won the Big Ten Tournament in April and advanced to the quarterfinals in the 2025 NCAA Division I tournament after eliminating USC in the Round of 16.

“Special season. Very special,” said Quan, who also won a qualifying round at the BNP Paribas Open (ATP 1000 tournament) in Indian Wells earlier this year. “From 5 years old, I wanted to be a Bruin. Especially to be able to play Court 1 against ‘SC in the Super Regionals, that’s a special feeling.

“Mentally, I’ve gotten a lot better. I think college teaches you how to be mentally tough. With a very loud and crazy environment, it just teaches you to stay calm in pressure moments. I feel good with where I’m at. I just hope to keep improving.”

Johnson came back for the last few weeks of his sophomore season to help contribute to the Bruins’ postseason success after missing 10 weeks, from early February to mid-April, with a stress fracture in his left elbow.

“For six of those weeks I didn’t touch a racquet,” Johnson said. “I feel like I’m starting to get my rhythm going. I was able to play the end of the season, and helped clinched the (NCAA Tournament Round of 16) match against USC at our home courts which, honestly, made my year since I wasn’t able to play. Winning the Big Ten Tournament at Ohio State, that was a joke. That was nuts. I think we finished as one of the best (NCAA) teams.”

Another fresh face has emerged in the women’s singles draw on the SoCal Pro Series. Mission Viejo resident Lani Chang, 14, made her first Southern California appearance in a women’s ITF pro tournament a memorable one in rallying to defeat 27-year-old Moscow native and Loyola Marymount University graduate student Veronika Miroshnichenko, 3-6, 6-4, 6-4.

In beating a pro roughly twice her age, Chang displayed the mental toughness and ability to grind her way through a match that was emblematic of the playing days of her father, Michael Chang. Thirty-six years after he won the 1989 French Open at Roland Garros at age 17, the Southern California tennis legend still stands as tennis’ youngest male Grand Slam singles champion.

He sat in the coach’s seat courtside all by his lonesome, quietly coaching Lani up and cheerleading, repeatedly exchanging those trademark fist pumps with his daughter the entire match.

“It means a lot because San Diego is a really special place, throughout my juniors,” Lani Chang said. “Like, (Girls) 10s and 12s, I was always playing at Barnes (Tennis Center) and I really like San Diego. To be here for my third ITF pro tournament is really special. Getting back to home conditions is really nice. To be able to sleep in my own bed is really nice. I’m hoping to play more in SoCal.”

Chang, playing this week on a wild card from USTA Southern California, faces eighth-seeded Ukrainian Anita Sahdiieva in the second round. She will begin high school online in the fall and is one month into her ITF/USTA Pro Circuit voyage at the women’s level.

In her first women’s ITF Futures event in May, Chang reached the semifinals. She reached the second round of a 35K event last week in the Dominican Republic.

“I definitely feel like my level is there. I feel like I’m getting a lot of confidence in the last month,” Chang said. “The level is so different between playing against juniors, and then playing against 16-year-olds, and then, like, 28-year-olds. The game style is so different. I think that the transition has been nice. I’ve had a lot of guidance from my parents.”

Chang splits her training between Southern California and Florida (including part-time training at the USTA National Campus in Lake Nona) and is happy to be back home for the first time in about three months. Chang has yet to commit to playing any of the remaining three tournaments on the SoCal Pro Series.

Woodland Hills resident Thea Frodin (No. 22 in the ITF World Tennis Tour Junior Rankings), 16, won a first-round match for the second consecutive week on the SoCal Pro Series. She eliminated San Diego resident and No. 6 seed Sebastiani Leon, 6-3, 6-4, on Tuesday. This is likely her last event on this circuit before she begins preparing for Wimbledon’s Junior Championships (July 5-13).

The top seeds in both singles draws fell in the first round. On the men’s side, Ohio State star Jack Anthrop powered past No. 1 seed and 2023 SoCal Pro Series (Lakewood) singles champion Andre Ilagan, of Hawaii, 6-3, 7-5.

Top-seeded Haley Giavara was edged by last week’s SoCal Pro Series champion at the University of San Diego, Mao Mushika, 6-1, 4-6, 4-6 in a slugfest. It sets up a rematch of last week’s women’s final with Alyssa Ahn in Thursday’s second round. Ahn knocked out Canadian Scarlett Nicholson, 6-3, 6-2.

In doubles, San Diegans Giavara, a 10-time ITF doubles champion and Cal graduate, and Ahn, entering Stanford in the fall, have formed a formidable partnership and notched a 2-6, 7-5, 10-6 (10-point, third-set tiebreaker) win over San Diego State’s Jo-Yee Chan and Stanford rising senior Caroline Driscoll. Giavara and Ahn face top-seeded Natsuho Arakawa and Nanari Katsumi, of Japan, in Thursday’s quarterfinals.

The University of San Diego was formidably featured in the opening three weeks of the SoCal Pro Series, what with the Toreros being represented in all three men’s singles finals through Week 1 runner-up Savriyan Danilov (also a Week 3 semifinalist), Week 2 champion and Week 3 semifinalist Oliver Tarvet and Week 3 runner-up Stian Klaassen.

However, the Toreros triplets’ time on the circuit has come to an end. Tarvet, who received a wild card into singles qualifying for Wimbledon from the Lawn Tennis Association this week, and Klaassen have moved on with their summers and now so does Danilov. He was ousted, 6-3, 6-3, on Wednesday by outgoing USC senior Karl Lee, who transferred in from UCLA after his freshman season.

Danilov, 25, has completed his final two years of collegiate eligibility and played at USD this year as a graduate student. He does not have plans to return home to Moscow. He is seeking permanency in Southern California, away from Russia’s weather and political climate.

“Playing in San Diego, I feel, was my best two years of my life,” Danilov said. “To me, it was always like a dream to escape the (Russian) winter because I hated winter. My nose would get red, and my cheeks. I would get sick all the time. People are very warm here, nice people, very welcoming, and it’s an amazing place.”

“When I was 21, I just decided it was time (to leave home) because I was stagnating in my pro career. I wasn’t progressing in my ranking, and I knew it was time to switch something. Back in 2022, I saw August Holmgren was on the college tour and when I checked for which team he was and I saw, ‘Oh he was from USD,’ and to me it was just like a signal – the coaches there probably know what they’re doing, they probably know how to develop players. And then I also Googled about San Diego and saw it was in California and it was considered one of the best places to be in the whole U.S.”

“I wasn’t satisfied for all the things going on (in Russia). Even the people from Ukraine who are at school realize we are actually neutral. They probably came here for one reason. I probably came for another reason. Whenever people get to hear from me, I feel like we always get along well. I feel like California is also known for having welcoming people, so I’ve never had a bad experience.”

Players to Watch

Kyle Kang – The Fullerton native and Stanford rising junior and No. 7 seed downed UC Irvine’s Rahul Dhokia, 6-2, 6-2, in Wednesday’s first round. In his third year of playing the SoCal Pro Series, Kang (No. 704 ATP ranking) is poised to contend on the weekend. In last week’s SoCal Pro Series event at USD, he dropped a tight, three-set match in the second round to eventual champion Trevor Svajda.

Eryn Cayetano – The 2023 USC graduate who was raised in Corona and Long Beach (Saint Anthony High School) impressively opened her 2025 SoCal Pro Series campaign with a 6-2, 6-0 triumph over Tijuana, Mexico native Midori Castillo Meza in Wednesday’s first round. With five of the eight seeds losing in the first round, Cayetano’s half of the draw includes just one other seeded player. Cayetano (No. 475 WTA ranking) won one singles title and two doubles crowns on the SoCal Pro Series over 2022 and 2023.

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