Two weekends of professional tennis in the Coachella Valley will get underway Sunday, with qualifying matches for the Southern California Open Association of Tennis Professionals Challenger 50.
The two-week tournament is being held at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden, the site of the BNP Paribas Open in March. Admission and parking are free, and tournament officials encouraged fans to come out and support the young generation of ATP players who could be among the next generation of top professionals.
“We have an amazing mix of veteran pros looking to get back into top ATP Tour level events, as well as some young talented prospects,” said Cathy Jacobson-Guzy, Southern California Open tournament director. “Our players include a former two-time Australian Open quarterfinalist, NCAA singles and doubles champions and the reigning back-to-back Kalamazoo USTA Junior Nationals winner.”
Week one of the men’s singles and doubles events will take place Sunday through Jan. 21, and week two will take place Jan. 21-28. At stake is $82,000 in prize money and 50 valuable ATP ranking points for the singles winner of each tournament, which together are branded the Southern California Open.
The men’s draw includes American Tennys Sandgren, who is ranked No. 259 in the ATP World Tour rankings and made the quarterfinals of the Australian Open in 2018 and 2020.
Former NCAA singles champion Paul Jubb of England is entered in the main draw for Week 1, alongside Southern California products such as Aidan Mayo (No. 293), former Pepperdine standout Sebastian Fanselow (No. 321), Irvine’s Omni Kumar (No. 372), former UCLA national champion in doubles Evan Zhu (No. 425) and Irvine’s Learner Tien (No. 452), the former Kalamazoo champ who has played in two U.S. Open main draws and is just 18 years old.
Former USC All-American Brandon Holt, 25, from Rolling Hills Estates was awarded a wild card into the main draw during Week 1.
All matches will be streamed live during both weeks of the tournament. More information about the tournament and matches can be found at ustasocal.com/socalopen.