USTA SoCal Pro Series Archives

Jagger Leach made his SoCal Pro Series debut on Wednesday in just his second tournament in nearly a year following a serious elbow injury with his Hall of Fame mother Lindsay Davenport cheering him on.

The 19-year-old, who was born, raised and still lives part-time in Laguna Beach, came back to beat former Illinois star Alex Petrov, 6-7(4), 6-3, 6-3 and said after the match the tournament setup at the Biszantz Family Tennis Center on the campus of Claremont Mudd Scripps Colleges reminded him of playing an ATP Challenger ($50,000 and higher) event.

“The courts are incredible, the facility’s great, there’s a challenge system. I was just talking to my coach about it,” Leach said. “We were blown away. It feels like a Challenger-level tournament. I’m happy I get to come back tomorrow.”

Leach was commenting in the men’s locker room while icing his elbow and halfway submerged in an ice bath. He recently completed his freshman year at Stanford and helped the Cardinal to a 19-9 overall record and its fifth consecutive NCAA Super Regional appearance. He was named the ITA Northwest Region Rookie of the Year and a three-time ACC Freshman of the Week.

Besides a wild-card entry and first-round qualifying loss at the Indian Wells Masters 1000 event in March, Leach’s last match was the Wimbledon Junior doubles final. “Yeah, it has been so long,” Leach said. “I really missed it, too. I love playing tournaments. But I got injured and then got through the college season and it’s just the way everything worked out. But I’m so happy to be back, just playing matches again. I’m not taking it for granted at all.”

Leach is playing in his eighth career ITF pro tournament and hopes to play the final two SoCal Pro Series events in San Diego (Barnes Tennis Center) and Rancho Santa Fe.

The Tennis Channel commentator Davenport was just as impressed as her son with how the tournament was running and the SoCal Pro Series overall. “It’s honestly amazing,” Davenport said. “It just shows the USTA Southern California’s commitment to these kids. It’s really hard to navigate the pathway to the pros, and a lot of the kids have such big dreams to make it. But it’s not easy. There are not tons of opportunities, and it’s really expensive. So to be able to have something like this, where players can seamlessly move from tournament to tournament, and get these opportunities is amazing.”

Davenport added: “Of course, he wanted to play sooner, but he just wasn’t 100% healthy. So, we just waited. He had a horrible injury last year. He was out six months after Wimbledon with his elbow injury. He’s just really happy to be healthy and be able to play here.”

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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USTA SoCal Pro Series

Jagger Leach Returns To Pro Tennis Tournaments At USTA SoCal Pro Series With Mom Lindsay Davenport Cheering Him On

Kaylan Bigun Wins Jack Kramer Club USTA SoCal Pro Series Title