Venus 2022 SD Sub ITA _TOP_
In boys 18s singles action, 2022 16s champion Parashar Bharadwaj extended his Easter Bowl winning streak to eight matches, but it wasn't easy, as he needed over three hours to defeat Karan Raghavendra 6-7(4), 6-4, 6-4.
Venus 2022 SD Sub ITA
Colette Lewis 2023--Indian Wells CA--Not many players can say they defeated the top seed in their first Easter Bowl match, but Gabe Avram is now on that short list after the 18-year-old from Charlotte North Carolina defeated No. 1 seed James Lian 7-6(5), 6-2 Monday at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden."I still go to regular school," said Avram, noting his reason for not playing previous Easter Bowls. "This is the first year they've given me a little more flexibility. I'm missing school now, but I'm still keep up my work."Avram said he wasn't daunted when he saw the draw. "I wasn't disappointed, I was excited to get to play him," said Avram, a high school junior who has verbally committed to South Carolina. "I didn't really know his game, I knew he was tough, had won Winter Nationals, but in some of the other metric systems we were pretty close. I knew it was a 50/50 match, but I knew I'd have to play well to win it."Avram fell behind 4-2 in the first set, and 4-2 in the tiebreaker, but once he got an early lead in the second set, he raised his level."I think we play pretty similar," Avram said. "We had a lot of long rallies, good back and forth ground stroke points. It was just a matter of who was going to win them, it could have gone either way. Then in the second set, I started opening up a little more, got more confident in the conditions, started going after my shots more."Avram said he likes the slower hard courts at Indian Wells and thinks they give him a chance to display his strengths."I'm grinding, not missing, I have an all-court game, wherever the point takes me, I'll be willing to grind it out," said Avram, who trains at Olde Providence Racquet Club in Charlotte. "I'm not the biggest guy, so I'm not going to slap shots and hit straight power. I like to slice, and I like my backhand a lot. It's one of my strengths, I can hit down the line with it."Avram chose South Carolina after talking with North Carolina, Virginia Tech, Indiana, with family friends who know Gamecocks head coach Josh Goffi making the introduction."I talked to a good variety of schools all around the country," Avram said. "But I knew I wanted to stay in South, and I also knew a guy who played there a few years ago who was helping me out some a few years ago, so it all kind of worked together, and I was most comfortable with it."Even Avram is surprised with all the success of the South Carolina program this season. Currently No. 4 in the ranking, the Gamecocks have been as high as No. 2, which is their best ranking in history."I knew they were going to be like, top 15, but I didn't know they were going to do this well," Avram said. "I'm happy for them and looking forward to it."Avram will play Creed Skinner in the second round Tuesday.The other boys Top 8 seed to lose in the first round was Neils Hoffman, who was beaten by Payton Jim On 1-6, 7-6(2), 7-5.In the boys 16s, No. 3 seed Ian Mayew lost to Xavier Calvelo 3-6, 7-6(5), 7-5.In the girls 16s, No. 4 seed Christina Lyutova, No. 5 seed Kayla Chung and No. 7 seed Mary Grace Rennard were beaten in the first round by Kenzie Nguyen, Lauren Han and Mila Malready, respectively. Susanna Maltby, the No. 6 seed in the 18s, retired with an injury after dropping a first-set tiebreaker to Emily Baek.Girls 18s top seed Valerie Glozman, the 2022 Easter Bowl 16s champion, defeated Kelsey Phillips 6-2, 6-0 in her opening match.Live streaming of Stadium Court 4 matches, with commentary by Ken Thomas, is available at the Easter Bowl site.The quarterfinals are set for the 12s and 14s age divisions, with the girls 12s at Palm Valley Country Club and the other three divisions at Indian Wells Tennis Garden. Unseeded Simon Lifton defeated No. 2 seed Dylan Meineke 6-3, 6-2 in the boys 12s round of 16, with Meineke the only Top 8 seed not to make the quarterfinals.While I was covering the four titles for Americans at the ITF San Diego J300, American juniors had success in other tournaments, with two singles and two doubles titles. Seventeen-year-old Alexia Harmon won the J200 in the Dominican Republic, with the No. 2 seed defeating top seed Hephzibah Oluwadare of Great Britain 6-1, 6-3 in the final. It's the second ITF single title for Harmon, who also reached the doubles final. Andrew Delgado made both the singles and doubles finals.2022 Easter Bowl 14s champion Nicole Okhtenberg won her first two ITF Junior Circuit titles at the J60 in Puerto Rico. Okhtenberg, seeded No. 6, defeated No. 11 seed Maria Aytoyan 6-4, 6-0 in the all-USA singles final. Okhtenberg partnered with Lauren Kettlewell for the doubles title, with the No. 3 seeds, who did not lose a set all week, beating No. 4 seeds Aytoyan and Bela Martinez Rivero of Puerto Rico 6-3, 6-3 in the final. It's the first ITF Junior Circuit title for Kettlewell.And at the J30 in Bhilai India, 14-year-old Aanya Choubey won her first ITF Junior Circuit title in doubles, with Nainika Narender Reddy Bendram of India. The No. 2 seeds defeated unseeded Saumya Ronde and Shagun Kumari Shagun of India 6-2, 6-4 in the final. Thirteen-year-old Vihaan Reddy, who was the Easter Bowl 12s finalist in 2022, represents India in ITF Junior Circuit competition, and he won his third consecutive J30 single title in Bhilai.
Colette Lewis 2023--Indian Wells CA--Players wait to spin for FILA prizes at the Easter Bowlplayer party Sunday eveningThe 2023 FILA Easter Bowl USTA National Spring Championships are already in full swing here in Indian Wells, with the 12s and 14s divisions playing their round of 16 matches Monday. Already many of the top seeds have been sent to the backdraw, including both No. 1s in the 14s, but that didn't stop any of the hundreds of players from attending the annual player party, sponsored by FILA.After a spaghetti dinner, with ice cream for dessert, players could spin the FILA Wheel of Fortune for prizes, line up for spirited table tennis or corn hole competition, or just catch up with their friends on the junior circuit while a DJ kept the atmosphere festive and the energy high. With the perfect weather--70 degrees and no wind--and the snow-capped mountains in the background, the young players making their first visit to the Indian Wells Tennis Garden could see why the BNP Paribas Open is such a revered tournament for those competing on the ATP and WTA tours.Below is the list of the top eight seeds in the 12s and 14s with notes on those who have lost (or withdrew). Only one unseeded player remains in the boys 12s, Simon Lifton of Southern California, but that is definitely not the case in the other three draws.B12s1. Zesen Wang2. Dylan Meineke3. Luca Queiroz4. Carter Jauffret5. Adrian Sharma6. Jason Eigbedion7. Advay Singh8. Danile GardalityB14s1. Colin McPeek (out rd 2)2. Liam Alvarez3. Ryan Cozad4. Ilias Bouzoubaa (out rd 1)5. Navneet Raghuram (out rd 2)6. Joseph Nau7. Roshan Santhosh8. Erik SchinnererG12s1. Grace Hong (withdrew)2. Caroline Shao3. Allison Wang (out rd 2)4. Raya Kotseva5. Daniela Del Mastro6. Michelle Lee (out rd 1)7. Aarini Bhattacharya8. Enya HamiltonG14s1. Carrie-Anne Hoo (out rd 1)2. Nancy Lee3. Isabelle DeLuccia (out rd 2)4. Abigail Gordon (out rd 2)5. Anita Tu6. Alyson Shannon (out rd 2)7. Ireland O'Brien (out rd 1)8. Anna BugaienkoThe 16s and 18s begin Monday, with the top 8 seeds below. There are some dangerous floaters in the 18s, including 2022 National 16s champion Alyssa Ahn, Shannon Lam, and in the boys draw, wild cards Mitchell Lee and Krish Arora among several others. Two of the top contenders for the girls 16s title will meet in the first round with No. 3 seed Alanis Hamilton taking on Monika Ekstrand at Palm Desert Tennis Club.B16s1. Dominick Mosejczuk2. Mitchell Sheldon3. Ian Mayew4. Ian Bracks5. Maxim Kalinin6. Nav Dayal7. Nolan Balthazor8. Nicholas MekhaelB18s1. James Lian2. Stephan Gershfeld3. Tygen Goldammer4. Alex Fuchs5. Cassius Chinlund6. Niels Hoffman7. Emon van Loben Sels8. Marko MesarovicG16s1. Claire Hill2. Leena Friedman3. Alanis Hamilton4. Christina Lyutova5. Kayla Chung6. Rachel Lee7. Mary Grace Rennard8. Claire AnG18s1. Valerie Glozman2. Tianmei Wang3. Sari Woo4. Maddy Zampardo5. Aspen Schuman6. Susanna Maltby7. Capucine Jauffret8. Esha VelagaMatches begin at 8 a.m. at Indian Wells Tennis Garden and at three other sites in the area.Nathan Ponwith won his first men's Pro Circuit title in January and today he earned his second, beating top seed Alex Michelsen 6-3, 6-7(5), 7-5 at the $25,000 men's USTA Pro Circuit tournament in Calabasas California. The former Arizona State star, seeded No. 7, was down 0-40 at 5-all in the third set of the two-hour and 43-minute final, but held then broke for the victory. The unseeded team of Cooper Williams and Australia's Edward Winter won the Calabasas doubles title, beating wild cards Rohan Murali and Elijah Strode 6-2, 6-3 in the final. It's the second USTA Pro Circuit title for the 17-year-old Williams, who has verbally committed to Harvard, as has Murali.
Colette Lewis 2023--San Diego CA--The first week of the junior version of the Sunshine Double was the new ITF J300 in Indian Wells, which brought the juniors on site during the second week of the BNP Paribas Open. If you didn't follow my daily coverage, make sure to read my recap of the titles for Clervie Ngounoue and Cooper Woestendick at the Tennis Recruiting Network. For the first time this week, the threat of rain was absent and the courts were dry at 10 a.m. for the singles semifinals at the ITF J300 Youth Tennis San Diego tournament at Barnes Tennis Center. although sweatshirts and warm jackets were still advisable for those not competing.Three of the four semifinals were straightforward affairs, but top seed Kaylan Bigun and No. 3 seed Alex Razeghi battled for over three hours before Bigun came away with a 6-7(5), 6-4, 6-4 victory and a trip to his second ITF J300 final.The match was close throughout, with no breaks in the 60-minute first set. Bigun trailed 6-3 in the tiebreaker, but Razeghi couldn't win either of his serves to close it out. The momentum was squarely with Bigun at that stage, but he shanked Razeghi's return to drop the set, and conveyed his frustration with an angry toss of his racquet.Bigun quickly collected himself in the second set."Only a few points decided [the first set], so I knew I could stick to my game style, maybe adjust a few things," said the 16-year-old left-hander. "But since it was so close. I knew I should stick to what I was doing."That strategy led Bigun to the first break of the match to go up 3-2 and he earned a second break and a 5-2 lead, converting his fifth break point in the five-deuce Razeghi service game. But he quickly lost his service game, and needed four set points to finally close out the second set serving at 5-4."Alex is a player that makes you work for every single point," said Bigun, who had lost to Razeghi 6-3, 6-0 in the final of the J300 in Ecuador last month. "So if you're not focusing on a point or so, you'll definitely feel it. It was a marathon."Bigun lost his serve in a five-deuce game to go down 2-0 in the third set but immediately got the break back. With Razeghi serving at 3-3, 30-40, Bigun came up with the shot of the match, hitting a backhand pass on the run from deep in the court that Razeghi could only watch with disbelief.Given his struggles closing out the second set, the match was far from over when he stepped to the line to serve for it a 5-4, but three winners gave him the 40-0 cushion, and he converted his second match point with a forehand that forced an error from Razeghi."That was my mindset, serve and rip a forehand as hard as I could," Bigun said. "I really got behind those shots and was able to close it out."It will be No. 2 seed Roy Horovitz who is seeking revenge in the final, with Bigun taking a 6-1, 6-2 decision in the semifinals in Ecuador. "The conditions are decently similar, but it's a final so we both have five matches under our belts, so now it comes down to competing and stuff like that, who can physically stay more fresh out there," said Bigun, who had post-match cramping today. "But I'll stick to my patterns; Roy's a good player, so anything's possible."Horovitz defeated No. 13 seed Max Exsted 6-4, 6-0, spending half the time on court that Bigun did Friday.Up 5-3, Horovitz looked to be cruising to the first set, going up 40-0. But Exsted hung tough to bring the score back to deuce, and a Horovitz double fault gave Exsted a chance to get back on serve. But Horovitz won a volley competition at the net to get back to deuce, then converted his fourth set point with a passing shot winner to secure the first set.Exsted was immediately broken in the first game, and Horovitz sailed through the next five games to avenge his loss to Exsted in the round of 16 at Kalamazoo last year."That wasn't the greatest match for either of us," said the 16-year-old from Florida, who was the top seed in the 16s at Kalamazoo. "But I definitely wanted to come back and redeem myself from that. But I wasn't thinking about that too much. I had a really good day today, and Max didn't play his best, but I was happy I was able to take advantage of that."Horovitz, who considers his speed and his consistency as the strengths of his game, said he has worked hard in the past few months at hitting the ball bigger and stepping into his shots more."I'm trusting myself and I've been doing a lot better recently," said Horovitz. "I have more confidence now, and there's definitely been a big improvement in my game."The girls final is also between the top two seeds, with No. 1 seed Iva Jovic and No. 2 seed Clervie Ngounoue meeting for the second time in two weeks, with Ngounoue defeating Jovic in the semifinals at the Indian Wells ITF J300 6-1, 6-2.Neither girl has lost a set in her five victories; Jovic defeated No. 3 seed Tatum Evans 6-1, 6-4 and Ngounoue beat No. 4 seed Ariana Pursoo 6-3, 6-3.Ngounoue had beaten Pursoo in the final of the J500 in Merida Mexico last November, so was ready for the pace she would see from the 17-year-old from New York. "It was different, because that was on clay; she hits big and she's a really good player, the ball comes very fast," Ngounoue said. "So I was expecting the ball to come faster than it did in Merida, just because the clay takes some of your power away, points become longer, you can't end points as quickly. So I was glad I was able to hold it together today."Ngounoue said the pace of Pursoo's ball made implementing a strategy difficult."It was hard to mix it up honestly, although I think we both threw in some variety," said the 16-year-old from Washington DC, who now trains at the USTA National Campus in Lake Nona. "But it was quick, hard to really think of anything else, you just had to be ready for the ball to come back."As for facing Jovic again so soon, Ngounoue is not surprised. "It's pretty much similar people from the last tournament, so you expect who you're going to meet," said Ngounoue, who also defeated Jovic in the 2022 Orange Bowl semifinals. "Unfortunately some people had to meet earlier, but I'm excited. When you're expecting it, well, we'll see what happens."Jovic's match with Evans came after the three-hour boys semifinal, and it was Jovic that appeared to better handle that long wait for a court. With the match barely a half-hour old, Jovic was up a set and a break, with Evans unable to get her usually effective serve going. She did break Jovic three times in the second set, including at 5-2, when Evans saved a match point, then held to force Jovic to serve it out a second time. Up 40-15, Jovic netted a forehand on her first match point, but Evans sent a forehand long to put Jovic into her fourth J300 final this year."She was making mistakes in the first set, and I was changing directions well," said the 15-year-old from Southern California. "In the second, I was doing a good job on her service games, but at the end, she stopped missing as much. So I had to serve better and earn all the points, so it got a little tight at the end, but I'm glad I got it at 5-4."Jovic is planning to make some changes after two straight-sets losses to Ngounoue in the past four months."Hopefully this time I can do things a little different, put up a good fight," Jovic said. "Yeah, I'm trying to figure something out; I definitely won't do the same thing as last week."Jovic is happy to be able to try these new options on the Barnes courts."These are probably my favorites courts, when it comes to tennis tournaments," Jovic said. "It's decently slow, but not as slow as Indian Wells. I like it, because it doesn't bounce as high; at Indian Wells the ball really jumps up and I like that on these courts it stays a little lower. This is definitely better for me."Jovic and Ngounoue will not only meet in the singles final, but for the doubles championship as well.In today's semifinals, top seeds Jovic and Tyra Grant defeated No. 5 seeds Piper Charney and Anya Murthy 6-1, 6-3, while Ngounoue and Qavia Lopez, the ITF J300 Indian Wells champions, defeated unseeded Kayla Chung and Alanis Hamilton 6-4, 6-2.The boys doubles quarterfinals and semifinals were both played this afternoon, with the local wild card team of ZhengQing Ji and Trevor Svajda and No. 6 seeds Exsted and Nikita Filin picking up two wins to reach the final.In the semifinals, Ji and Svajda, whose older brother Zachary was in attendance, defeated No. 3 seeds Keegan Rice and Duncan Chan 7-6(3), 7-6(3). Exsted and Filin defeated the unseeded Canadian team of Kaetan Mehta and Emmett Potter 6-2, 6-3 in the semifinals. Mehta and Potter had defeated No. 4 seeds Oliver Bonding of Great Britain and Max Stenzer of Germany 7-6(7), 6-1 in the quarterfinals, while Exsted and Filin beat No. 2 seeds Atakan Karahan of Turkey and Hoyoung Roh of Korea 6-3, 7-5.The two singles finals are scheduled for 10 a.m, followed by the two doubles finals, with Jovic and Ngounoue allowed suitable rest between matches. 041b061a72