In two short years, the SoCal Pro Series has already delivered on its promise, providing opportunity to many junior and collegiate tennis players showing the most potential across the courts of Southern California and serving as a springboard to an early-career ascent through the professional ranks and up tennis’ world rankings.

Year three of the SoCal Pro Series commences next week with the first of seven consecutive weeks of $15,000-purse men’s and women’s professional tournaments on the USTA Pro Circuit and ITF World Tour played entirely within San Diego and Los Angeles counties and managed by USTA Southern California. Barnes Tennis Center in San Diego will host back-to-back events over the first two weeks of the series beginning this Monday, May 27.

Learner Tien (No. 434 ATP ranking), the 18-year-old from Irvine who won his first pro singles title in his hometown within the SoCal Pro Series in June 2023, and San Diego’s Haley Giavara (No. 451 WTA ranking), who parlayed her cumulative 2023 SoCal Pro Series performance into a qualifying berth in this year’s BNP Paribas Open, are positioned to be top seeds in the men’s and women’s main draws for next week’s SoCal Pro Series opener.

Tien debuted in three events on the SoCal Pro Series in 2022 at age 16 and ended his junior career last year as the top American junior player, reaching No. 4 in the world junior rankings, while advancing to the US Open and Australian Open Boys’ singles finals and the French Open Boys’ singles semifinals. He won the 2022 and 2023 USTA Boys’ 18s National Championships (Hard Court), thus earning US Open main draw wild cards the past two years. Tien drew 2022 US Open semifinalist Frances Tiafoe (ATP No. 26) in last year’s first round.

The SoCal Pro Series gives Southern California players the chance to earn valuable ATP and WTA world ranking points. Main draw and qualifying wild cards are made available to U.S. citizens who are Southern California residents or full-time Southern California college students.

Murrieta native Joseph Corse and incoming USC freshman Anya Murthy won pre-qualifying events to earn wild cards into the main draw in next week’s opening tournament at Barnes Tennis Center.

A host of San Diego County products and returning SoCal Pro Series entrants were also awarded main draw wild cards by USTA Southern California – UC Irvine standout Noah Zamora and Torrey Pines High School’s William Kleege (2024 CIF-San Diego individual doubles champion) on the men’s side, and Carlsbad residents Katie Codd (Duke University) and 15-year-old Julieta Pareja and Fallbrook’s Emily Deming (early commitment to Georgia) in the women’s draw.

Among the Southern Californians receiving qualifying stage wild cards into SoCal Pro Series Week 1 are UC San Diego-bound Robert Freedman, the 2024 CIF-San Diego Section individual singles champion from Torrey Pines, 2024 Pac-12 Conference Freshman of the Year and Ladera Ranch resident Spencer Johnson, and three prime female prospects still in high school – Kenzie Nguyen (Irvine resident) and San Diegans Rachel Lee (early commitment to Yale) and Yilin Chen.

The opening week of the 2024 SoCal Pro Series schedule coincides with the final week of USTA’s National Tennis Month of May. Each SoCal Pro Series tournament week features men’s and women’s singles and doubles qualifying on Mondays and Tuesdays, first-round main draw play on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, doubles finals on Saturday and singles finals on Sundays.

Tennis fans are encouraged to attend SoCal Pro Series events (free admission) and get a sneak peek of Southern California’s elite junior and collegiate talent before they potentially jump on the fast track toward future stardom on the ATP and WTA Tours.

The inaugural year (2022) of the SoCal Pro Series included the likes of Aliso Viejo’s Alex Michelsen, La Jolla native Zach Svajda and University of San Diego product August Holmgren, who won the series’ very first tournament a week after finishing runner-up in the NCAA Division I national championship match to current top-15 world-ranked Ben Shelton. Holmgren currently sits just outside the world’s top 300.

Michelsen entered the USTA SoCal’s inaugural competition as a 17-year-old high schooler and played his third and fourth ITF tournaments in the SoCal Pro Series with barely a world ranking to his name. Less than two years later, the teenager is ranked No. 65 in the world and is the youngest player ranked in the world’s top 75.

Svajda, who won the 2020 and 2021 USTA Boys’ 18s National Championships (Hard Court), won two the last two SoCal Pro Series singles events he played in at age 19 and now ranks No. 122 in the world. Svajda and fellow SoCal Pro Series alum Tristan Boyer, of Altadena, competed in French Open qualifying this week.

The 2023 SoCal Pro Series, on the women’s front, featured San Diego resident Katherine Hui, who said her experience in the series “really helped me to get ready” for competing and winning the US Open Girls’ (Junior) singles title at age 18. Earlier this month, she was named the 2024 Pac-12 Conference Freshman of the Year while at Stanford.

UCLA’s Tian Fangran won the 2023 NCAA Division I national singles title as a freshman shortly before going on to play in three SoCal Pro Series singles tournaments last year, winning two of those and placing runner-up in the other.

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: Lakewood Tennis Center 1; May 25-27 (registration closed), Barnes Tennis Center 2; May 31-June 2, Rancho Santa Fe Tennis Club; June 14-16, Jack Kramer Club. SoCal players can register for events at: https://www.ustasocal.com/proseries.