TEMPLETON, September 24, 2025 (by Steve Pratt)
Haley Giavara and Eryn Cayetano have been friends and rivals for as long as they can remember.
Their first meetings on the tennis court for the two 24-year-old pros date back more than 10 years to their Southern California junior careers as Giavara grew up in San Diego and Cayetano 110 miles to the north in Long Beach. It continued in college as both played for rival Pac-12 Conference schools with Giavara attending Cal-Berkeley and Cayetano a decorated All-American at USC.
Within minutes of each other, both walked off the courts winners on Tuesday during the first round of the Central Coast Classic brought to you by Central Coast Home Health, an ITF World Tennis Tour W75 with $60,000 in prize money at stake, taking place at the Templeton Tennis Ranch this week.
Giavara, who remembered coming to Templeton back in 2019 as a college freshman to play qualifying, took out 30-year-old WTA veteran Valeriya Strakhova from Ukraine, 6-2, 6-0.
It was a sweet revenge win for Giavara, who lost to Strakhova 6-3 in the third set at the W100 in Charlottesville, Va., back in April.
“I decided not to play a tournament last week and just practice and work on things,” said Giavara, who is coached by her father Ken Giavara. “I just applied what I worked on and I executed.”
Cayetano also wasn’t pushed in her first Central Coast Classic match beating wildcard Jenna Defalco, 6-2, 6-4.
On Wednesday, Giavara and Cayetano will pair up in doubles as the No. 4 seeds face former USC Trojan Salma Ewing and 17-year-old junior phenom Elizabeth Ionescu, who is headed to Texas to play her college tennis next fall.
In their only time playing together as a doubles team, Giavara and Cayetano won the SoCal Pro Series Lakewood title last summer.
In the big upset of the day, the tournament lost its No. 1 seed on the first day as Louisa Chirico fell to former No. 1 college player Mary Stoania from Texas A&M, 7-5, 6-3.
Usue Arconada, last year’s singles finalist, also opened up strong beating Amelia Rajecki from Great Britain, 6-0, 6-3.
Martina Okalova from Slovakia, the top seed in qualifying, made her way into the main draw with a 6-4, 6-1 win over Carolina Bohrer Martins from Brazil. Olivia Lincer, the No. 3 seed from Poland, beat Ionescu from York, Pa., in three sets to qualify.
In the night’s doubles matchup, the Cal Poly wildcard doubles pairing of Delanie Dunkle and Kennedy Buntrock fell to Katrina Scott and Anita Sahdiieva, 6-2, 6-4.
