By Steve Pratt | Wednesday, June 8, 2022
Back in the fall of 2016, Ryan Seggerman was a 16-year-old Coronado High School junior who took advantage of a USTA wild card alongside his buddy Timmy Sah to advance all the way to the Irvine ITF Pro Futures doubles final before falling to current Top-50 ATP player Mackie McDonald and Deiton Baughman.
Fast forward six-and-a-half years and Seggerman once again cashed in on his wild card fortunes, this time in singles and at the inaugural SoCal Pro Circuit’s second tournament being played this week on the campus of the University of San Diego.
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A recent Princeton University graduate, the 22-year-old Seggerman on Tuesday defeated rising Ohio State sophomore Jack Anthrop, of Florida, 7-6 (1), 6-3, for his first ATP point in singles while advancing to the second round and a meeting with Rancho Santa Fe resident Kalman Boyd on Thursday.
“I am really happy to get the win and my first ATP point in singles,” said Seggerman, wearing a Princeton Tennis t-shirt. “I really wanted that one. It was tough and close and just came down to a few big points in each set. I’m glad it went my way.”
Seggerman held the No. 1 ranking as a Junior in Southern California in the 12s, 14s, 16s, and 18s. He studied operations research and financial engineering at one of the country’s elite Ivy League schools. He has enrolled at the University of North Carolina in the fall and will play his fifth-year season (he is granted an extra year of NCAA eligibility due to the pandemic-induced cancellation of the 2020 NCAA season) for the Tar Heels in the next schoolyear.
Seggerman was one of four Southern California players who won first-round men’s singles matches on Tuesday as Boyd, wild-card Siem Woldeab of La Mesa, and Irvine resident Kyle Kang also advanced.
In what could be the match of the first round, two highly touted Southern California teenagers will battle it out on Wednesday as Irvine’s Learner Tien, the nation’s No. 1 Junior in the USTA rankings, plays Rancho Santa Fe resident and qualifier Hudson Rivera. Top-seeded Gage Brymer, who advanced to the singles final at last week’s event, will open play Wednesday against unseeded Fletcher Scott at 10 a.m. Denmark’s August Holmgren, who beat Brymer in last week’s final and also won the doubles title, takes on qualifier Jacob Brumm of Rancho Santa Fe in his first round also at 10 a.m. Holmgren has been on fire the past two weeks, having advanced to the NCAA Division I Men’s Singles final while playing for the University of San Diego.
On the women’s side, top-seeded Jessica Failla of Ramona will take on fellow San Diego County resident and wild-card Megan McCray, of Oceanside. Both won first-round matches on Tuesday. In the only main draw women’s match played, Torrance’s Kimi Hance of UCLA took out Katja Wiersholm in three sets. San Diego 17-year-old Katherine Hui fought her way through to the main draw winning her second qualifying match Tuesday.
The is the second week of the SoCal Pro Circuit with last week’s tournament having taken place at Rancho Santa Fe Tennis Club. Next week, the circuit heads to Barnes Tennis Center in San Diego. Each tournament features men’s and women’s main draws of 32 singles players and 16 doubles teams. Each tournament is open to the public, with free admission.
Following its San Diego County swing, the SoCal Pro Circuit resumes June 27-July 3 at Jack Kramer Club in Rolling Hills Estates before moving onto Los Caballeros Sports Village in Fountain Valley July 4-10, and concluding July 11-17 at Lakewood Tennis Center in Lakewood.
Weekend semifinals and finals matches will be live-streamed with commentary from Cracked Racquets podcaster Alex Gruskin.
Photo credit: Lexie Wanninger / USTA Southern California