After opening the season at the Universal Tennis Rating Pro Fall Slam, four Trojans will be representing USC women’s tennis in San Francisco for the Battle in the Bay Classic. 

Senior Immi Haddad, junior Simone Kay, freshman Kiara Zabkova and freshman Lexi Wolf make up the group, which Head Coach Alison Swain said was built around development rather than results. 

“The way we design tournament plans and schedules for our players is based on their individual goals, our goals for them and their personal player development,” Swain said in an interview with the Daily Trojan. “We certainly want to give, particularly, our freshmen more match play opportunities.”

The tournament runs from Thursday to Sunday at the California Tennis Club, the oldest private tennis club in the West, according to its website. Matches begin Thursday, with a Wild Card Shootout on Saturday before finals Sunday.

The Battle in the Bay features individual competition rather than dual matches. Players compete in four draws — men’s singles and doubles, and women’s singles and doubles — against opponents from programs across the country. The draw does not come out until the night before play begins, Swain said, so the Trojans don’t yet know their opponents.

The winner of the women’s singles draw and the winner of Saturday’s Shootout each earn a wildcard into a professional tournament: a bid to either the tournament in Templeton or the one in Rancho Santa Fe. 

Swain said the wildcard is not the main focus for the players; rather, it’s the experience they’ll gain.

“I don’t know that [the wildcard is] at the forefront of the minds of my players going to this tournament,” Swain said. “It’s certainly a cool opportunity. … The main goal is good, high-level college competition, gaining more experience [and] trying to put into practice the things we’ve been training.” 

Coming off Newport Beach

USC rarely plays UTR events in season, but Swain said the Fall Slam provided the opportunity for guaranteed singles matches.

USC is coming off the UTR Pro Fall Slam in Newport Beach, which ran from Sept. 14 to Sept. 20. Kay went unbeaten in group play alongside senior Lily Fairclough before they both lost in the semifinals. Zabkova won one match in group play before withdrawing from her semifinal match.

“We almost took that tournament as like a training block, where we were just getting a lot of match play in against other opponents that we don’t normally see,” Swain said. “Everybody came away from the tournament with good clarity on the things they want to keep working on throughout the fall.”

Swain said the group has trained for a week and a half since Newport Beach in preparation for this week’s tournament.

Players to watch

Kay, who played in the No. 6 position in USC’s singles lineup last season, was the Trojans’ deepest runner in Newport Beach. The junior went 7-6 overall in singles last season. Kay will be going into the tournament as a veteran college player and a leader for the team, Swain said.

After winning Slovakia’s national women’s singles title in July, Zabkova is a part of the Trojan squad for this tournament. The freshman beat UC Irvine senior Bella Pitchford in her opening match at the Fall Slam before falling in her remaining group matches. 

Wolf, a freshman from Pacific Palisades, will get valuable experience from this tournament at the beginning of the season. She was the Mission League MVP and was a CIF finalist at Notre Dame High School. She also won three International Tennis Federation doubles titles and has recorded one Women’s Tennis Association point.

A historic venue

For the Trojans heading to San Francisco, the setting is part of the draw, according to Swain. 

“[The tournament] is played at a really historic tennis club in San Francisco. There’s a lot of [USC] support at the club, so they make it a really fun and special event,” Swain said. “We’re excited to put on a good show and compete really hard [and] continue to establish our identity as a team this year.”

The Trojans head to the Battle of the Bay event ready to compete, starting with Thursday’s opening matches.