Rising senior Kimmi Hance squared off against a familiar face in the W15 Rancho Santa Fe singles semi-final June 22.

Standing across the court was rising junior Anne-Christine Lutkemeye – Hance’s doubles partner since March.

“I consider her one of my best friends,” Hance told USTA Southern California. “Last time I played her, I think I was 17 and she was, like, 15 – it was the day that she committed to UCLA.”

The two Bruins embraced following the match, with Hance walking away victorious 5-7, 6-0, 7-6(6) – punching a ticket to her first professional title game.

“This is a big accomplishment for me,” Hance told USTA Southern California. “I worked my way into the tournament and I definitely feel like I’m playing really great tennis.”

The duo were two of nine UCLA student-athletes that have participated in the SoCal Pro Series thus far, with five from women’s tennis and four from men’s.

While the Torrance, California, local came up short of the championship win – losing to 15-year-old phenom Julieta Pareja 7-5, 1-6, 4-6 – Hance and Lutkemeyer would meet again in the W15 Los Angeles tournament as doubles partners, while also continuing to compete individually.

“The coaches always want us playing a lot of matches to keep developing over the summer, so we’ve all been trying to do that,” Lutkemeyer said after competing in the W15 Los Angeles. “The fact that they’re so close has been something that’s allowed us to do that.”

After securing the first ATP point of his career in the M15 San Diego, rising sophomore Spencer Johnson strung together back-to-back wins to open the main draw of the M15 Los Angeles – earning a trip to the quarterfinal, where he fell to Arizona’s Colton Smith, a 2023-2024 ITA All-American.

Johnson’s doubles partner last season – rising redshirt sophomore Emon van Loben Sels – competed in the qualifying draws of two SoCal Pro Series tournaments. He then made it into the main draw of the M15 Los Angeles with back-to-back wins in the event’s qualifiers. However, van Loben Sels was defeated by Ohio State’s Bryce Nakashima in the first round 7-5, 6-7 (0), 4-6.

Rising junior Azuma Visaya competed in the first round of the M15 Los Angeles qualifying draw, becoming the first of two Bruins to be eliminated by Nakashima. Before joining the SoCal Pro Series, Visaya competed in the M15 Harmon in Guam and M25 Tulsa – earning a first-round win on straight sets in the latter.

Following his ATP debut in the M15 San Diego, rising junior Aadarsh Tripathi won four straight matches in the M15 Rancho Santa Fe before falling to Arizona’s Jay Friend – the 2024 ITA Southwest Region Most Improved Player – in the quarterfinals.

“I love being able to play pro tennis – which is my dream,” Tripathi said. “I’ve never experienced something like this and it was a great first experience.”

Rising senior Elise Wagle made it into the main draws of both the W15 Rancho Santa Fe and W15 Los Angeles but came up short in each first round – with the latter a result of back-to-back tiebreaker losses 6-7 (1), 6-7 (4).

UCLA women’s tennis’ two blue-chip recruits – incoming freshmen Kate Fakih and Olivia Center – joined their future teammates in the SoCal Pro Series. Center played in the W15 San Diego and W15 Rancho Santa Fe while Fakih played in a W35 tournament in Wichita, Kansas, before the pair traveled West to play in the W15 Los Angeles.

Though Fakih made it to the Los Angeles singles quarterfinal, the pair of top-10 2024 Tennis Recruiting Network recruits found success as doubles partners – advancing to the semi-final but falling short 6-4, 3-6, 3-10 to Stefani Webb of UCF and Anita Sahdiieva of LSU.

In Europe, rising junior Tian Fangran competed in Portugal’s W75 Guimaraes in mid-June. By the end of the month, she had made it to the singles semi-finals in both the W35+H Tauste and W50 Palma del Rio in Spain at the end of the month. Tian won the W35+H Tauste doubles title with Texas A&M graduate Rutuja Bhosale – the duo never dropped a single set throughout the tournament.

“Next year, I think we have a very deep team,” Lutkemeyer said. “I’m really looking forward to what we’ll be able to accomplish next season.”

Email Dizon at [email protected] or tweet @KaiADizon.