Photos by Jon Mulvey/USTA SoCal

LAKEWOOD, Calif., July 14, 2024 – The Learner Tien Express roared through Lakewood on Sunday as the 18-year-old phenom won his 25th consecutive match and fifth straight professional title on the final day of the SoCal Pro Series following seven weeks of $15,000  ITF World Tour tournaments in San Diego and Los Angeles County. 

On Saturday, Tien from Irvine survived a third-set tiebreaker in the semifinals dropping his only set all week against former UCLA All-American Keegan Smith, and the former USC Trojan took out another former Bruin No. 1 downing wild-card Govind Nanda of Redlands, 6-3, 6-3, in the finals at the Lakewood Tennis Center.

It was the eighth career singles title for Tien, who won four SoCal Pro Series events over the seven weeks and an ATP M75 Challenger ($82,000 ) in Michigan before Lakewood. “It feels good,” said Tien. “I’m happy I made it through the week. I’m a little tired but feel OK. It’s been tough mentally after a long week and to get right back to it. I’m just glad I got through another week.”

As he inches closer to breaking into the world top 250, Tien next heads to the Chicago M75 ATP Challenger July 22-28 followed by the USTA National Hardcourt 18s at Kalamazoo where he is the two-time defending champion and looking for a third straight US Open main draw wild card that goes to the winner.

Tien was asked if he recalled when he last lost a match. “Yeah, it was when I got hurt,” said Tien, who fractured a rib on the left side of his rib cage on February 20th in Florida.

He added: “I haven’t thought about the streak that much. I’m just taking it one match at a time and trying not to overthink it. This week was a lot tougher mentally for me than physically.”

Nanda was riding a streak of his own coming into the final having won 11 straight matches in Lakewood, including last week’s title. He played two physical three-set matches in the quarters and semis and said his body was feeling the effects of the past two weeks as he continues his comeback from multiple injuries.

“Man, Learner’s just super tough and doesn’t have any holes,” Nanda said of Tien. “He moves you around a lot and plays very high percentage and then kind of pulls the trigger when he wants to without much risk.”

Asked what someone needs to do to beat him, Nanda replied, “You just have to make a lot of balls and you have to be able to hurt him when you can. I don’t know when he’ll lose again. At this point he’s rising pretty fast.”

It was the third career meeting for Tien-Nanda with Tien winning the first meeting on clay in Florida in just his second pro tourney in April of 2022 and also taking a very close third-set tiebreaker (11-9) in Malibu in January of 2023.

Similar to the age difference in the Wimbledon men’s final of 16 years between winner Carlos Alcaraz (21) and Novak Djokovic (37), the women’s final had an even greater age difference of 19 years as the younger player also came out on top. Seventeen-year-old Alanis Hamilton, an Arkansas native who currently lives and trains in Dallas, came back to beat 36-year-old Tori Kinard of Pasadena, 3-6, 7-6 (3), 6-2 to win the women’s singles title.  

Kinard, who comes from a prominent Indonesian family of former badminton champions, including her father Chris who was a six-time U. S. champion, started playing pro tournaments in 2006 before Hamilton was even born. She has played in 296 ITF pro events during her career and was trying to win her first-ever singles title playing in her sixth career ITF pro final.

“I think after I won the first set I got a little ahead of myself,” said Kinard, who was watched by her brother and coach Travis Kinard, who played at UCLA in the early 2000s. “I’m happy to have had a good week and would have loved to have won it.”

A high school senior who will graduate a semester early, Hamilton has committed to the University of North Carolina and plans to join the team in the spring of 2025.

“It feels amazing,” said Hamilton, who had never been past the second round in any of her first seven pro tournaments. “It’s pretty unexpected.”

One year ago, Hamilton made the semifinals in doubles at Junior Wimbledon and last August she and Kayla Chung made the finals in doubles at the USTA Billie Jean King Girls’ 18s Nationals. She said the goal next month is to go one match farther at the Barnes Tennis Center and win the coveted US Open wild card. 

Kinard, who played all seven SoCal Pro Series events, will skip the ITF in Evansville, Ind., this week but plans to play the following two weeks in Dallas and Kentucky.

“I love it too much to stop playing,” Kinard said. “I love being on the courts and competing. My family supports me and I couldn’t be happier than when I’m on the court.”

In the women’s doubles final on Saturday, the unseeded team of recent Auburn graduate Carolyn Ansari and N. C. State sophomore Gabriella Broadfoot from South Africa beat the No. 3 seeded team of Amelia Honer and Teja Tirunelveli from Texas (by way of India), 6-7 (3), 6-3, 10-3. In the men’s doubles final, the No. 1 seeded team of Keegan Smith and Nathan Ponwith (Georgia/Arizona State) repeated the title they won last week as they take out Alan Fernando Rubio Fierros of Mexico and Adam Jones from Great Britan, the No. 2 seeds, 6-2, 6-2.