LA JOLLA, CALIF. – (March 1, 2026) – Playing inspired tennis from start to finish, second-seeded Branko Djuric and Andrin Casanova of USC shocked top-seeded Spencer Johnson and Aadarsh Tripathi of UCLA 6-4, 6-4 in one-hour and 32 minutes to win the 137th Annual Pacific Coast Men’s Doubles Championship.
The championship match, which was contested under bright sunny skies on Court No. 1 at the La Jolla Beach & Tennis Club, began with a large vocal crowd of UCLA and USC alumni and supporters in attendance. Spectators witnessed an entertaining final with all four players exchanging volleys at the net on numerous occasions.
At 3-3 in the opening set, Djuric and Casanova came through with the first service break of the day as they broke Tripathi for a 4-3 lead. Three games later, Djuric slammed an ace to start the 10th game and proceeded to serve out the first set.
In the second set, Djuric and Casanova once again broke Tripathi in the seventh game. After Djuric held in the next game for a 5-3 advantage, Johnson easily held serve in the ninth game to cut the lead to 5-4.
With USC fans cheering him on, Casanova served for the title in the 10th game. At 40-15, Johnson and Tripathi fought off one championship point, but at 40-30, Tripathi sent a forehand service return long as the Trojans clinched the match.
“It’s pretty special. We are very happy to win it. We got our returns in play, that was the key. Winning match point was a pretty good feeling. We felt relief, we had a few nerves in the beginning. It felt really good to close it out,” Casanova said after winning the title.
“We came out and played very competitively the whole weekend. We played a really good match in the finals. There were a lot of nerves against our rivals, but we played really solid doubles,” Djuric said. “We were always there with our return games and hitting our spots with the serves and returns and it paid off with one break in each set.”
In semifinal action earlier in the day, Johnson and Tripathi defeated fifth-seeded Nathan Trouve and Pablo Robledo of USC 6-1, 7-6 (4) in two-hours and 24 minutes on Court No. 1.
On Court No. 2, Djuric and Casanova rebounded from a 5-2 second-set deficit to get past fourth-seeded Emon van Loben Sels and Gianluca Ballotta of UCLA 6-2, 7-5 in one-hour and 23 minutes.
In an early-morning match on Court No. 4, Quincy Jones and Jack Sherner of Villanova University edged Nadaul Cheam and Dylan Paterson of UC Davis 6-3, 5-7, [10-5] to capture the Consolation title.
To view the final tournament draw, click here.
