Ashley Lahey advances to U.S. Open round of 16 in junior girls’ competition

Ashley Lahey, a 16-year-old Hawthorne resident who is currently a freshman at Pepperdine University, continued her winning ways at the 2016 U.S. Open junior championships.

Lahey won her fourth consecutive match at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing, N.Y., as she defeated American wild-card entrant Natasha Subhash, 6-2, 6-3, in the second round on Tuesday.

“This is my first major, and it’s just been incredible,” said Lahey, who won two matches in qualifying to make the 64-player main draw last weekend. “I was so excited to come out to New York. I had an emotional qualifying and started crying when I finally won. I’ve worked so hard to get here.

“I mean, just walking around and seeing all the pros, like (Rafael) Nadal and (Caroline) Wozniacki. They both acknowledged me, and were nice to me. It makes me feel like I belong. It makes me feel like a real pro.”

There were several other Southern Californians in action on Tuesday at the U.S. Open junio competition. USC freshman Brandon Holt, the son of tennis Hall of Famer Tracy Austin, fell in his second-round singles match to No. 5-seeded Miomir Kecmanovic of Serbia, 7-5, 6-2.

Last year, the Rolling Hills Estates resident and his partner, Riley Smith of Los Alamitos, turned heads by making it all the way to the doubles final at the Open as wild cards.

In other matches Tuesday, Redondo Beach’s Taylor Johnson eliminated qualifier Irina Siermers of Germany, 6-4, 6-4, to reach the round of 16 while Thousand Oaks 16-year-old Claire Liu, the No. 10-seeded player, lost her second-round match to Tessah Andrianjafitrimo of France, 2-6, 6-4, 6-1.

On Wednesday, wild-card entrant Carson Branstine of Orange will play a second-round round boys’ match while No. 5-seeded Kayla Day of Santa Barbara is in action in the girls’ competition.

Future UCLA Bruins teammates Jada Hart of Colton and Ena Shibahara of Rancho Palos Verdes will play a second-round doubles match on Wednesday. In the first round, the wild-card team upset the top-seeded team in the tournament.