With older brother Brandon watching from the stands, San Diego’s Bryce Nakashima captured the first professional singles title of his career Sunday, defeating Ohio State teammate and doubles partner Aidan Kim 6-2, 7-6 (2) in the final of a $15,000 USTA Pro Circuit event at Barnes Tennis Center.
The victory gave the 22-year-old San Diegan his first World Tennis Tour singles championship and came at the same venue where Brandon Nakashima won the 2022 San Diego Open, the lone ATP Tour title of his career.
Brandon Nakashima, currently ranked No. 31 in the ATP rankings, returned home this weekend after reaching the second round at Wimbledon and was among the family members on hand for Sunday’s final.
“It’s awesome,” Brandon Nakashima said. “To see him win his first professional title here, where also I won my first ATP title, it’s pretty special. It’s a special place.”
“I started growing up playing here, every junior tournament at Barnes, so I guess you can say it’s kind of special that the first one came here,” Bryce Nakashima said. “It’s good to have my brother in attendance.”
Sunday’s championship match paired two returning Ohio State standouts who spent much of the past collegiate season winning together. Nakashima and Kim posted a 29-7 record as doubles partners for the Buckeyes and had never faced one another in tournament competition.
“It’s always fun playing your teammates,” Nakashima said. “I know him, his weaknesses. He knows mine.”
Kim, an NCAA Division I All-American and Ohio State’s top singles player during the 2025-26 season, said familiarity only goes so far in a championship match.
“It felt like another match because we’ve played, like, a million times,” Kim said. “He just played better than me today.”
The title continued a strong summer for Nakashima, who reached the first professional singles final of his career at the SoCal Pro Series stop in Irvine two weeks ago. He will return to Ohio State this fall for his senior season and now owns five World Tennis Tour doubles titles in addition to Sunday’s singles breakthrough.
“The results are starting to come in,” Nakashima said. “I’ve put in a lot of work, off court, on court, at Ohio State, with my coach. We never said it was about the wins. It was just about getting better each day, and the results will come after that.”
The championship earned Nakashima 15 ATP ranking points and $2,160 in prize money.
In the women’s singles final, Russia’s Alina Shcherbinina defeated Pasadena resident Kate Fakih 6-3, 7-6 (1) to become the first player to win three women’s singles titles during a single SoCal Pro Series season.
Shcherbinina advanced through seven matches as a qualifier without dropping a set this week. Across her three tournament victories this summer, she has lost only one set.
Fakih, a UCLA standout, was playing in the first professional singles final of her career.
“She was just relentlessly attacking and she got me on my heels a little more than I would have liked,” Fakih said. “She served very well and she returned extremely well.”
Despite the loss, Fakih praised the Southern California-based series for providing local players an opportunity to compete against high-level professional competition close to home.
“This is great for all SoCal residents,” Fakih said. “It’s just amazing to get really high-level matches. We get to see our friends. A lot of these players are in college so we get to spar against them. Every moment you experience is a win and I’m just so grateful to be here.”
In Saturday’s doubles finals, Anne-Christine Lutkemeyer and Anita Sahdiieva won the women’s title, while Max Exsted and Noah Johnston captured the men’s championship.
The seventh and final stop of the 2026 SoCal Pro Series begins Monday at the Rancho Santa Fe Tennis Club.
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