American teenager Tommy Paul is the top-seeded player at the third annual Southern California USTA Pro Circuit event taking place at the Marks Tennis Stadium on the campus of USC.
The $25,000 USTA Pro Circuit event features some of the nation’s top young pro tour players, as well as the area’s top college players. Just 19, Paul is a former US Open Junior singles finalist in 2015 and is currently ranked No. 282 on the ATP World Tour.
Paul will open play on Wednesday against qualifier and University of Virginia junior Collin Altamirano in the first round. Qualifiers winning final matches on Monday included Altamirano’s Virginia teammate Henrik Wiersholm, Jonathan Mridha, Sameer Kumar, Timur Khabibulin and former UCLA player Karue Sell and current Bruins Gage Brymer and Martin Redlicki.
Yannick Hanfmann is the No. 4 seed this week at USC.
The No. 2 seeded player is former USC star Roberto Quiroz of Ecuador and his cousin Emilio Gomez, also from Ecuador, is No. 3. Also a former Trojan, Emilio is the son of 1990 French Open winner Andres Gomez. Former USC players make up three of the top four seeds in singles as Yannick Hanfmann is No. 4, and 2016 NCAA singles champion Mackenzie McDonald of UCLA is No. 5. McDonald is currently No. 321 in the world and is coming off a solid fall which saw him record wins over Americans like Francis Tiafoe, Denis Kudla and Tim Smyczek.
McDonald isn’t the only former NCAA singles champ from UCLA in the main draw as Marcos Giron continues his comeback.
Awarded wild cards in singles are USC’s Brandon Holt, University of Virginia senior JC Aragone and USC junior Thibault Forget.
The No. 1-seeded doubles team is Luke Bambridge and Joe Salisbury of Great Britain. Awarded a wild card in the doubles main draw are USC freshmen and former US Open Junior finalists Holt and Riley Smith.
The USC Pro Circuit Futures is being directed for the first time by Phil Siordia, the new USC Director of Tennis Operations and formerly an SCTA Tennis Service Representative who played college tennis at Cal-State Northridge.
Community Events for the USC Tournament include:
Friday, Jan. 6: NJTL Community Reception; 3 p.m., includes doubles final.
Saturday, Jan. 7: Youth Tennis Play Day; 10 a.m.-11 a.m., includes pizza and prizes.
Sunday, Jan. 8: USPTA Clinic – Preventing Injuries Presented by USC Coach Peter Smith; 10 a.m.-11 a.m.