Tianmei Wang Defeats Kayla Day to Earn First Pro
Title in the 2025 SoCal Pro Series Finale

Australian Dane Sweeny Captures Men’s Singles Title in Three-Set Comeback Over Keegan Smith; UCLA Teammates Rudy Quan and Emon van Loben Sels Win Men’s Doubles to Record First Pro Titles

Tianmei Wang is exactly the type of player USTA Southern California had in mind when it created the SoCal Pro Series and launched its spring/summer collection of $15,000-purse tournaments on the ITF World Tennis Tour and USTA Pro Circuit in May 2022.

The Stanford-bound San Marino resident who just graduated from San Marino High School a little over a month ago has never played an ITF professional tournament outside of Southern California, as Wang said it would be too hard on her and her family to travel while she is attending school.

Of the 10 ITF pro events Wang has played, the last nine have come on the SoCal Pro Series, with her first appearance coming in a first-round defeat in Lakewood in 2023. It remains the only time she has lost in the first round and, on Sunday at the 2025 SoCal Pro Series finale at San Diego State University’s Aztec Tennis Center, her commitment and dedication to the circuit paid her the ultimate dividend.

Wang, 18, closed out her fifth SoCal Pro Series tournament in the past seven weeks by earning her first ever professional title in a 6-4, 6-3 victory over top-seeded Kayla Day, of Santa Barbara, in the women’s singles final. Wang reached the SoCal Pro Series’ singles semifinals in Week 3 at the University of San Diego and in Week 5 at Lakewood Tennis Center, losing to the eventual champion in both of those events. The SoCal Pro Series gods smiled down on her this weekend.

“It means so much that I came out on top out of so many great opponents,” said Wang, who was supported in Sunday’s crowd by her father, Xuesong, and was warmed up before Sunday’s match by her future Stanford teammate and close friend, Alyssa Ahn, who lost to Day, 3-6, 3-6, in Saturday’s semifinals. “This is one of my bigger tournaments that I have won. I lost in the semifinals of USD (in Week 3) and I was so mad at myself because I really wanted to play Alyssa in that final. It was (going to be), like, a win-win because it’s all Cardinal. And then I was like, ‘You know what, I will make it into the final of another one. I promised myself. I remember I told myself that. But I didn’t really believe until it happened.

“Without the SoCal Pro Series, it wouldn’t have given me so many opportunities to get better. It has meant so much to me because over the summer there’s not a lot of tournaments that I can play. It’s really amazing that USTA SoCal put together so many good tournaments with so many good players so I can train for these right after school ends. I think my game has advanced over the past seven weeks. Just knowing you have so many more opportunities and so many more matches really gets you excited on trying to improve on your game. It’s nice to have tournaments right near where you live.”

Wang overcame a 0-4 deficit in the first set and was down a break at 0-2 in the second set before she made some tactical adjustments and found her rhythm in staging her furious rallies in each set.

“I physically feel fine,” said Wang, who played her last four SoCal Pro Series events with shin splints on her right leg. “I ran track on my high school team. It was a lot of conditioning I did for my high school, so I feel like I was pretty prepared. I feel like I was running well, moving well and getting up to short balls well. I was trying to take the ball a lot earlier. She (Day) wasn’t moving that well. I think I was moving her well around the court.

“I’m just, overall, really happy with how I played this week. Especially with the nerves. I haven’t been on this stage. I haven’t been playing that many pro tournaments before because I go to school. I’m really happy with how I handled myself, especially when it got tight towards the end and I was really going for my shots. I’m really proud of myself.”

Wang wound up eliminating the tournament’s top three seeds, upending No. 2 seed Ukrainian Anita Sahdiieva, 5-7, 6-4, 6-1, in Friday’s quarterfinals and ousting University of Texas-bound No. 3 seed Christasha McNeil, 6-4, 2-6, 6-2, in Saturday’s semifinals after falling behind 1-4 in the first set. Wang does not plan to play any more Futures events in the next two months before moving to Stanford. She plans to take the next few weeks to rest, recover and train for the USTA Girls’ 18s National Championships in San Diego in August and has hopes of playing in the US Open Junior Championships.

Wang gained 15 WTA world ranking points and a $2,352 prize, while Day received 10 WTA world ranking points and a $1,470 runner-up share.

A five-time ITF singles champion, Day (No. 463 WTA ranking) held a career-best WTA ranking of No. 84 in April 2024. She reached the third round of the French Open in 2023. In 2024, Day competed in the main draw at the Australian Open and French Open and the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, among other WTA events, and also in the qualifying stages at Wimbledon and the US Open.

This week’s SoCal Pro Series finale was a step in the right direction on Day’s hardcourt pathway leading up to US Open qualifying in late August. Day, 25, wrapped up her eighth tournament of 2025 — all since the end of April — as she continues to progress in her recovery and match fitness from December surgery to repair a pinched nerve in her right ankle that forced her out of tournament action for nearly seven months.

Day cruised through the previous four rounds of the tournament, not having dropped more than three games in any set. Wang, however, was a different opponent altogether, and it was Wang who was dictating more of the points as she got comfortable with the pace of the rallies and the match went on.

Said Day: “I think she started reading my balls better and catching up to my pace a little bit. I think my level dropped a little bit. She was returning my serve really well, so I give her credit. As the match went on, unfortunately, she was definitely moving me more than I was moving her, which was the biggest problem, I think. And I was struggling with my movement today because I have some pretty bad blisters on my feet. It’s kind of a bad combination.

“I’m really happy to be able to play five matches in a row — I haven’t been able to do that — so it’s definitely a good stepping stone. I’m sure in a couple hours I’ll be looking back and feeling much happier. To win four matches in a row is definitely a confidence booster. No matter how small a big tournament, being in a final is a good feeling. I’m pretty upset right now. I feel like when you get so close, it stings a little bit more, but it’s also a good thing.”

Day’s protected ranking assures her of participation in the few Challenger events she has scheduled this summer, beginning with a 100-level event in Evansville, Ind. in a week, and in US Open qualifying.

Of note, Day lost to Carlsbad resident Julieta Pareja, 6-7(5), 4-6, in the first round of last year’s US Open qualifying. That match was played roughly two months after Pareja became the SoCal Pro Series’ youngest singles champion, at age 15, when she won last year’s event at Rancho Santa Fe Tennis Club.

While Day finished as a SoCal Pro Series runner-up, Pareja finished runner-up in singles and doubles at Wimbledon’s Junior Championships on Saturday and Sunday, respectively. Pareja partnered in doubles with fellow 16-year-old Thea Frodin, a Woodland Hills resident who played in two SoCal Pro Series events over the past month.

Day remembers her tight match against Pareja at Flushing Meadows last August, and Pareja left an impression on her.

“She’s great. A young up-and-comer, and she played really well,” Day said of Pareja. “I’ve seen she’s had some really good results, so I’m happy for her. I saw she won the (Wimbledon) warm-up event (J300 Roehampton) as well. And she did well at a WTA (WTA 250 in Bogota, Colombia) earlier this year; she made the semis.”

In Sunday’s men’s singles final, San Diego native Keegan Smith, a 2017 Point Loma High School and 2021 UCLA graduate, faded after a fast start in losing, 6-1, 3-6, 2-6, to No. 2 seed Dane Sweeny, of Australia, on Saturday afternoon. Sweeny, 24, won a round of qualifying at January’s Australian Open and won his eighth ITF singles crown on Sunday. His previous seven Futures wins came within Australia in 2022 and 2023.

Smith (No. 497 ATP ranking), 27, was aiming to win the first and last singles tournaments of the 2025 SoCal Pro Series. He beat University of San Diego graduate student Savriyan Danilov in Week 1 at Barnes Tennis Center, and he put himself in position to play for a fourth ITF singles title after knocking off Topanga resident and recent UC Santa Barbara graduate Gianluca Brunkow, 6-3, 6-4, in Saturday’s semifinals.

Playing with a bone bruise and some inflammation in his right foot during his 2025 SoCal Pro Series stint, which limited him to playing only three of the seven tournaments, Smith initially did not sign up to play in this concluding tournament but changed his mind after accepting a wild card offer from USTA Southern California.

“I had only practiced a few days — I took three weeks off. I was pretty happy with how I did. I was right there in that second set to win it,” Smith said. “The first set, I was just trusting it and going for it. I felt like maybe I got a little more tentative. I started grinding a little bit and that’s not really my game, and that plays into him, for sure. I think, over time, he’s going to win that. I got a little tired, started missing first serves. The first set, I was hitting my spots seamlessly. Little nerves, a little fatigue, all that stuff kind of plays in. He started getting his mojo. I think he’s in better shape than me right now, too, and he’s probably a little bit better than me from the back.”

Smith will take another week at home in San Diego for recovery and family time before heading to Europe to play events for the majority of the remainder of the summer. He said he would be open to returning to play on the circuit next year even if by then he is playing at a Challenger Tour level, which is his hope.

“I got a lot of points, a lot of confidence, a lot of good matches,” Smith said of his 2025 SoCal Pro Series experience. “It was cool that I just got to stay at home and see my family. It was a lot of fun. I really enjoy tennis and hopefully I can keep working hard and staying focused and can make it to the next level one day.”

Sweeny (No. 575 ATP ranking) reached the SoCal Pro Series final for the second consecutive week after registering a 3-6, 6-3, 7-5 semifinal win over Ladera Ranch resident and UCLA returning junior Spencer Johnson.

Sweeny collected 15 ATP singles ranking points and a $2,160 winner’s prize. Smith received eight ATP ranking points and a $1,272 check as runner-up.

All four participants in Saturday’s men’s doubles final sought their first ITF men’s professional championship, and it was UCLA returning sophomore and No. 1 player Rudy Quan, of Thousand Oaks and Bruins teammate Emon van Loben Sels triumphantly tallying a 6-4, 6-3 victory over twins and San Diego residents Jayson and Michael Blando, graduates of Rancho Bernardo High School and the University of Utah.

Quan and van Loben Sels earned 15 ATP doubles ranking points each and split a $930 champion’s prize, while the Blando brothers collected eight ATP doubles ranking points each and split a $540 check.

Saturday’s women’s doubles final saw Sahdiieva collect her fourth SoCal Pro Series doubles crown of 2025, and her second with partner Kylie Collins, in a 6-4, 6-0 victory over former University of Arizona teammates Midori Castillo-Meza, a 21-year-old Tijuana, Mexico native, and Brandelyn Fulgenzi.

Overall, it was the ninth ITF Futures doubles win for Sahdiieva and the fifth for Collins. Sahdiieva and Collins tallied 15 WTA doubles ranking points each and split a $955 winner’s check. Meza and Fulgenzi received 10 WTA doubles ranking points each and split a $515 runner-up prize.

Match of the Week

Men’s Singles, Quarterfinals – Gianluca Brunkow d. Kyle Kang, 7-5, 3-6, 6-2

Topanga resident Brunkow, who finished his career as UC Santa Barbara’s No. 1 player during the 2024-25 NCAA season and was named an All-Big West First Team selection in singles and doubles, smoothly segued to play in his third USTA Pro Circuit and SoCal Pro Series main draw. He achieved his first ATP ranking point and advanced to his first pro semifinal in the same week after outlasting Fullerton native Kang, who returns to Stanford for his junior year in September after having won his first ITF pro singles crown the week before (Week 6) on the SoCal Pro Series at Jack Kramer Club in Rolling Hills Estates. The 2025 SoCal Pro Series served up breakthrough moments for both Southern Californians.

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