LOS ANGELES (Jan. 3, 2015) – Men’s professional tennis will return to the greater Los Angeles area with the playing of two consecutive USTA Pro Circuit $15,000  Futures events on the campus of the University of Southern California, Jan. 3-11, and at El Dorado Park Tennis Center in Long Beach, Jan. 10-18.

Players with ATP World Tour rankings from the low 290s to 600 will compete for valuable ranking points and prize money in the 32-player singles and 16-player main draw doubles. Former USC star and four-time NCAA champion Daniel Nguyen is expected to be a seeded player coming in at No. 309 in the world. Also entered to play are reigning NCAA singles champion Marcos Giron (No. 375) formerly of UCLA and 16-year-old Stefan Kozlov (No. 467), who recently won the Boys’ 18s junior title at the Orange Bowl International Championship in Florida.

Qualifying for the event hosted by USC and played at the Marks Tennis Stadium begins TODAY on Saturday, Jan. 3, with main-draw action taking place starting on Tuesday, Jan. 6. The singles final for the USC tournament will be held on Sunday, Jan. 11 and the doubles final will take place on Friday, Jan. 9.

“We are so excited to have this tournament at USC,” said tournament promoter and USC Men’s Tennis Coach Peter Smith. “We have an unbelievably strong field of players for this level event, including NCAA singles champion Marcos Giron, Orange Bowl champ Stefan Kozlov and former Trojan great Daniel Nguyen.”

Smith’s Trojans won four team titles from 2009-2012, with Nguyen playing a huge part all four years, including winning the deciding match in the final both in 2010 and 2011.

“This tournament gives us a real glimpse of the future of pro tennis,” said Smith, who added a fifth NCAA team title to his resume last May. “It is so important to have this tournament in L. A., and I feel it’s our responsibility to host it. Not only for the public to watch but for all the great up and coming young tennis players in Southern California to play it.”

Most of the same players will play in both tournaments, the second of which will take place at the El Dorado Park Tennis Center in Long Beach Jan. 10-18 and led by tournament director Cathy Jacobson-Guzy. Smith has a connection to the Long Beach event as he and Mitch Bridge operate the Southern California Junior Tennis Academy out of the El Dorado Park Tennis Center.

Other top players entered next week include: former Michigan All-American and local from Torrance Jason Jung (No. 323), former UCLA standout Dennis Novikov (No. 291), and 2012 Wimbledon doubles winner Frederik Nielsen (No. 345),

Up and coming Americans set to play include: Mitchell Krueger, Ernesto Escobedo of West Covina, Calif., former Virginia All-American Mitchell Frank and former Pepperdine All-American and 2014 NCAA singles finalist Alex Sarkissian, from nearby Glendale, Calif.

The four wild cards for the main draw have also been announced and include current USC players Eric Johnson and Yannick Hanfmann. Southern California’s top junior and world ITF top 10 player Taylor Fritz and Stanford freshman Tom Fawcett are the other two wild cards.