SAN DIEGO – A pair of All-Americans from the UCLA women’s tennis team put on championship performances in the USTA SoCal Pro Series event on the campus of University of San Diego, taking both the singles and doubles titles Saturday and Sunday. Fangran Tian earned the singles crown, while the combination of Tian and Kimmi Hance took the doubles top prize.
The International Tennis Federation (ITF) World Tennis Tour singles championship represents the second of Tian’s career. She previously won at the Nov. 2022 Fighting Illini Women’s Tennis Open in Champaign, Ill. Tian collected two doubles titles in Antalya, Turkey during the fall of 2021. Hance was the doubles defending champion at USD, winning alongside Makenna Jones in 2022.
Tian lost just one set over the course of the tournament, with that coming in the first round against Brandy Walker. Walker took the opening set 6-4, but Tian answered with a pair of 6-1 showings. Tian put on a 6-1, 6-1 display opposite Hance in the second round, then handed Malaika Rapolu of Texas a 6-2, 6-2 loss in the quarterfinal round. Tasked with taking down top-seeded Samantha Crawford in the semifinals, Tian did just that by a 6-2, 6-1 margin. She then bested qualifier Aspen Schuman 6-1, 6-2 in the final.
Counting her run to the NCAA Championships singles top spot, Tian has won 15 of her past 16 singles contests. She was only felled in the ITF Rancho Santa Fe championship match, by Megan McCrary in three sets.
Hance and Tian needed a pair of 10-point tiebreakers to seal victories on the doubles side, starting in the first round. The pair got the better of Jessica Alsola of California and Pang Jittakoat of Fresno State 2-6, 6-2, 1-0(6) in its opener. Hance and Tian overcame Alyssa Ahn and Jessica Bernales for a 6-0, 6-3 decision in the quarterfinals, then turned in a 6-4, 6-0 win versus Taylor Johnson of SMU and Nikki Redelijk of Pepperdine for a spot in the final. There, Hance and Tian outlasted Rapolu and Baylor’s Anita Sahdiieva 3-6, 6-1, 1-0(9).
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at UCLA…