Kaylan Bigun waited a little longer than expected to win his first ITF pro singles title two weeks ago at the opening week Lakewood SoCal Pro Series event. The former UCLA standout didn’t have to wait long for his second title as the top-seeded 20-year-old beat Jack Kramer Club member Andy Johnson, 6-1, 7-5, on Sunday.
It was a boisterous crowd of approximately 375 cheering on the 16-year-old Johnson, ranked among the top junior players in the world. The electric atmosphere seemed to increase as the match went on as Johnson overcame an 0-5 deficit in the first set to keep the fans on the edge of their seats and rooting for more.
Watch his post-match interview with Randy Walker here Kaylan Bigun Talks After Winning Jack Kramer Club USTA SoCal Pro Circuit Event https://youtu.be/tjY57x-wpdo?si=YmGftq6Z9KOaoNV1 via @YouTube
Bigun said his dad told him after the match that the Kramer Club was the site of his first tournament title growing up on the Westside of Los Angeles as a young junior. “I didn’t really remember it, but it’s all starting to come back now,” said Bigun, who is entered into the Week 4 of the USTA Southern California Pro Circuit $15,000 event that begins Monday at the Racquet Club of Irvine. “You’ve seen Southern California guys go through these tournaments in the past and do well and build some momentum.”
Although he wasn’t named, Bigun may have been speaking specifically of another talented SoCal lefty who is also 20 years old in Irvine’s Learner Tien. Two summers ago, Tien used the SoCal Pro Series as a springboard to greater things winning four of the events and then two M75 Challengers and is now among the top 20 players in the world rankings.
Bigun, who won the Roland Garros junior title in 2024 and was the No. 1-ranked junior in the world at the end of that year, jumped out to a quick 5-0 lead against the No. 5 seeded Johnson, who was backed by the loud Kramer Club crowd. It was the first meeting for the two in an official match, but they practice together a lot at the USTA Training Center in Carson.
“To be honest, I like playing in front of crowds so it didn’t bother me,” said Bigun, who served for the match at 5-4 in the second set only to see Johnson play three great points to hold his serve and extend the match.
During the trophy presentation, Kramer Club General Manager and tournament director Peter Smith congratulated Bigun. “You not only faced a tough player in Andy, but also all of the Kramer Club members,” Smith said. “You are a great player and you showed a lot of class out there today.”
Besides the club members, Johnson’s friend and family members cheered him on. Also there was his coach since he was 4 years old Vasile Beches, a Bucharest, Romanian native who teaches out of the South End Racquet Club in Torrance.
“It definitely helped me,” said Johnson, who will next play Roehampton J300 on grass before heading to Wimbledon. “They kept pushing me and I wanted to keep the match going because they were being so great and supportive.”
In the women’s singles final, it was a battle of two qualifiers who were each playing their sixth match in as many days as Russia’s Alina Shcherbinina edged out South Carolina senior Kaitlyn Carnicella, 6-0, 6-7(4), 7-5. Shcherbinina, 22, played at Baylor before finishing at Oklahoma and had never been past a quarterfinals in an ITF event, falling three times in the round of eight.
In 2022 during the first year of the SoCal Pro Series, Shcherbinina played in five of the tournaments losing in the quarterfinals at the Kramer Club event to 14-year-old Iva Jovic from Torrance, a wild card who went on to make the final in her pro debut.
“I remember she was 14 and I knew nothing about her,” said Shcherbinina, who lost the match 6-1, 6-1. “She played so well and you knew she was going to be a regular on the tour.”
In the men’s doubles final New Zealand’s Reece Falck and Billy Suarez (Tulane) beat the top seeds Christopher Papa (Pepperdine/San Diego Christina) and Lambert Ruland from Germany, 7-5, 6-4. In the women’s doubles final, it was a battle of No. 1 vs. No.2 as the American pairing of Capucine Jauffret and Kristina Penickova eked past top-seeded Salma Ewing (USC) and Alexandra Vagramov (UCLA), 4-6, 6-2, 10-8.
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