Just days after announcing he had turned professional, recently graduated USC All-American Brandon Holt captured a non-sanctioned “Backyard Barnstorming Tour” tournament with three impressive wins over the weekend.
The 22-year-old Holt, who is ranked just inside the top 500 on the ATP World Tour, opened the money event at the Knollwood Tennis Club in Montecito, Calif., beating top American ATP pro Sam Querrey in Group 1, which also included Jason Jung and Masa Perera, whose father Laxman Perera sponsored the event.
Group 2 included Southern California pros Brandon Nakashima, Marcos Giron, Emilio Nava and UCLA player Govind Nanda.
Holt avenged a finals loss to Querrey from two weeks ago at the Home Court Advantage exhibition in Rolling Hills, Calif., and was a top finisher of his group on Saturday to advance to the semifinals on Sunday.
Sunday’s format was a first-to-four games, no-ad 10-point tiebreaker to decide the third set. Nanda defeated Jason Jung, 4-0, 4-3, in one semifinal on Sunday with Holt getting past Nakashima in the other semifinal, 10-5 in the tiebreaker.
In the final, Holt beat Nanda, 4-2, 4-3, to take home the $4,000 top prize with Nanda earning $2,500.
Photo: Allen Yap