Antonius and Xu Claim FILA Easter Bowl 12s Titles; Johnston and Okhtenberg Win 14s Championships; Qualifier Wen Ousts ITF Top Seed Quinn; 12s, 14s and 16s 2021 Easter Bowl Girls Champions Reach ITF Quarterfinals

©Colette Lewis 2022--
Indian Wells, CA

Four Easter Bowl singles champions were crowned today at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden, with Michael Antonius and Baotong Xu taking the 12s titles and Noah Johnston and Nicole Okhtenberg earning their first gold balls in the 14s. 

Antonius, a No. 5 seed,  defeated No. 2 seed Vihaan Reddy 7-6(4), 6-2, while Xu came from behind to beat Yilin Chen 4-6, 6-2, 10-6.  Johnston, a No. 9 seed, downed No. 3 seed Evan Sharygin 6-4, 6-1, with Okhtenberg defeating Avery Nguyen, a No. 9 seed, 4-6, 6-0, 6-0.

Xu and Chen, both unseeded, were the first finalists to take the court on a warm but calm day in the Coachella Valley. Chen started with a break and held on to it, with Xu still in the process of coping with Chen's high looping balls.

"She played great in the first set," said Xu, who will turn 12 next month. "She was staying really consistent and she was making me really uncomfortable. I was taking the balls early, but in the first set I was missing those, because her shots were on the baseline, very aggressive, but in the second set, I just stayed lower, played confident. On those shots you really need to be that way, because if not, the ball's going to go into the net or just out."

Chen agreed that Xu adapted well in the second set.

"People don't like the kind of balls I play," said Chen, a 12-year-old, who trains at Morgan Run in San Diego. "They're high lobs usually, and this girl handled it really well, because she could take it on the rise and she had really good defense."

Once Xu got a break early in the second set, she began to play more confidently, and although Chen occasionally forced her to the back fence with a high looping ball, Xu was generally able to find a ball she could attack.

Xu said she was not nervous in the match tiebreaker, her third in the past three matches, preferring to treat it as if it was a practice match. After speaking to her coach Peter Smith during the three-minute break before the match tiebreaker, the slim left-hander was able to identify what had worked in the second set and ran out to a 7-2 lead, with Chen making several unforced errors. Xu continued to play the steadier game down the stretch and although Chen closed the gap to three points at 8-5 and 9-6, Xu was able to close out her second match point with a volley winner.

Although she was unseeded, Xu didn't think of herself as an underdog. 

"I did do the work, everything that brought me here," said Xu, who is from Washington state, but relocated to Southern California several months ago in search of more competition. "I didn't really even look at the draw. I just played my match, because no matter if a player is seeded or not, they're just a player. I know if I do my best, what it takes me to win, I can achieve it."

The boys 12s final featured Reddy, who had won the gold ball at the USTA Winter Nationals in January, and Antonius, who was seeking his first.

The edge in experience may have been with Reddy, but Antonius was determined to wear down his opponent, and believed he succeeded.

"It was just a grind today," said Antonius, a 12-year-old from Buffalo New York. "Every point was long, every game was grindy, but I tried to limit as many free points as possible."

Antonius served for the first set, but did give away several points in that game, but he regrouped for the tiebreaker, intent on capturing the first set with his second opportunity. 

"There were a bunch of momentum streaks, but I knew I just had to grind it out," Antonius said. "Once I won that tough point at 5-4, that really motivated me to get the set right there."

Antonius continued that strategy in the second set, leading throughout and closing with a break of serve.

Reddy, who had a dramatic win over No. 3 seed Teodor Davidov in the semifinals, regretted not being more aggressive in the match.

"I felt like I should have come to the net more to finish the points," said the 12-year-old from San Jose, who trains at Eagle Fustar Tennis Academy. "He was just getting to everything, balls that I hit really well, balls to the baseline, and I just missed a couple. But it was a good tournament, I beat pretty good players and lost to a good player today."

Antonius is eager to share the news of his title with one of his former coaches, Marcus Fugate, who won the Easter Bowl ITF doubles title in 2005. 

"I thought I have to do this for him," Antonius said of his opportunity for a gold ball. "It feels so good.

Now working with new coaches in Buffalo and also with the USTA, Antonius considers his father Daniel as his perennial coach.

"My dad is a big coach too, and I have him the most, because whenever I want to hit, he's there to hit with me," Antonius said. "He tries to balance technical and tactical training and that's what I like."

Boys 14s champion Noah Johnston lost in the first round at last year's Easter Bowl, but the 14-year-old left-hander from South Carolina now has his first two gold balls, claiming the singles and doubles titles today.

Johnston, who breezed through his semifinal match Wednesday, got off to a slow start against Sharygin, falling behind 3-0. But he wasn't discouraged, knowing that he was getting opportunities that he would eventually take.

"I knew I could come back because I had about eight or nine break points," Johnston said. "I was up 0-40 in both of his service games but just couldn't finish, so I knew I could get back to even."

Johnston did, at 3-3, then broke at 4-4 and served out the set. Taking a 4-1 lead in the second set, Johnston was able to take advantage in the differences in their time on court Wednesday, with Sharygin playing two long three-setters in singles and doubles and Johnston only a quick singles match.

"I could tell he was getting tired because I saw he had a 7-5 in the third yesterday," said Johnston, who returned well and hit with pace and depth throughout the match. "I used that to my advantage and tried to keep it physical out there."

Sharygin admitted he felt the effect of Wednesday's play.

"I think my level dropped a little bit and I started going for shots earlier in the rally," said the 14-year-old from Newburgh Indiana, who said he wasn't accustomed to getting this deep in a tournament and learned he'll need to improve his fitness going forward. "I kinda got wore out because I was pretty tired from the previous day." 

"I think he played pretty solid, he was making a lot of balls, made me play a lot of balls," said Sharygin, who trains at Kass Tennis Academy and at the Evansville Tennis Center. "He's a great player."

Johnston's mother Sophie Woorons was an All-American at Clemson, and he considers his entire family as his coaches at Brookstone Tennis in Anderson.

"My mom's my coach, my dad's my coach and my grandpa's my coach," said Johnston, who often exhorts himself in French on the court, with maintenant (now) one of his favorites. "My grandparents and my mom grew up in France, so I learned English and French at about the same time. I speak French to my grandparents, so it travels on the court."

As for how he would celebrate his titles, Johnston didn't hesitate when asked. "I want a really good dinner. I want really good food--the food around here is amazing."

While Johnston was able turn around his slow start midway through the first set, it took Okhtenberg a little more time, but she was accustomed to that scenario. Earlier this month, she had dropped the first set to Nguyen in the USTA Spring Team Championships in Mobile before coming back for a 3-6, 6-2, 6-4 victory.

"It was nerves, I guess," said the 13-year-old Okhtenberg, who trains at the Evert Academy in Boca Raton. "I just calmed down and was doing what I was taught. And then she was getting mentally down, so that kind of helped me."

Although the scores of the second and third sets don't suggest it, most of the games were close, as were the majority of the points, but Okhtenberg was not willing to concede anything, waiting for the error from Nguyen, which she eventually got. 

Nguyen said her nerves developed in the second set, because she was up and the title was within reach. 

"I let her into it a bit, and I think that's why she started to play better," said the 14-year-old Nguyen, who trains with Joe Gilbert at JMG Tennis Academy and has hit with ATP pro Jenson Brooksby on occasion. "In that [National Spring Team] match I played a little bit better there, because I didn't have that many nerves. What happened here kind of happened there too; I won the first set but came out a little bit slow in the second and she was able to take off after that."

Okhtenberg felt that not being one of the 16 seeds actually helped her, "less pressure on me," as she put it.

Another pressure reduction came when she was not aware of the Road to Wimbledon wild card that she will receive for winning the Easter Bowl. A new 14-and-under tournament (with invitations to one boy and one girl from 16 countries is scheduled for the second week of Wimbledon this year but Okhtenberg didn't know about it. When asked if she would be interested in going this year

she answered, "I mean, yeah." 

Any thoughts of that event or celebration of her first USTA ball will have to wait until Friday however, as she was headed to LAX for a flight tonight.

12s and 14s Doubles:

B14s Doubles: Noah Johnston/Gray Kelley(left) d. Jack Kennedy/Sebastian Bielen 6-3, 6-0

B12s Doubles: Andrew Johnson/Tyler Lee(right) d. Jordan Lee/Michael Antonius  6-0, 6-4

 

G12s Doubles: Welles Newman/Lyla Middleton(left) d. Akanksha Parashar/Raya Kotseva 6-3, 6-4

G14s Doubles: Ava Rodriguez/Kenna Erickson(left) d. Annika Penickova/Kristina Penickova 6-3, 7-5

While the 12s and 14s were contesting their finals on the two show courts, the third round of the ITF Grade B1 produced the biggest upset to date, with qualifier Evan Wen defeating top seed Ethan Quinn 6-4, 0-6, 6-3.

Wen, who was out for 18 months in 2020 and 2021 due to back problems, said that Quinn was not in top form.

"I got a little lucky, it wasn't his best day," said the 18-year-old from New Jersey, who now trains at the McEnroe Tennis Academy. "I went out there and said, 'you know what, I'm just going to go out there and fight as hard as I can and see what happens.' I'm definitely trying to just get matches under my belt since I've been out injured for so long."

It's not the first time this year Wen has beaten a No. 1 seed, taking out the top seed at a J3 in Mexico at the end of February, but that pales in comparison to this win.

"That was definitely nothing like Ethan," Wen said. "He's been playing great. Obviously he's a little tired, he's been playing a lot, so I think I capitalized on the moment. He didn't play his best match and I came out here and kind of took it to him."

Wen will play Kyle Kang, who defeated No. 5 seed Alex Frusina 7-6(3), 4-6, 6-4.  The other boys top half quarterfinal will feature training partners Learner Tien and Alex Michelsen after No. 15 seed Tien defeated No. 4 seed Michael Zheng 6-2, 3-6, 6-1, his second win over Zheng in the past two weeks. Michelsen beat unseeded Roy Horovitz 6-1, 7-5.

Jelanie Sarr beat a seed for the second straight day, taking out No. 11 Aayush Bhat 6-2, 6-4 to set up a quarterfinal encounter with No. 3 seed Nicholas Godsick, who beat Meecah Bigun 6-4, 4-6, 6-0. No. 2 seed Nishesh Basavareddy, who has lost eight games in three matches, beat Rohan Murali 6-3, 6-1. He will face Jonah Braswell, seeded No. 9, who beat No. 7 seed Sebastian Gorzny 7-6(6), 6-1.

The girls ITF quarterfinals will feature a trio of 2021 Easter Bowl singles champions. Last year in San Diego, Shannon Lam won the 12s, Iva Jovic won the 14s and Thea Rabman won the 16s. This year in Indian Wells, all three have advanced to the ITF quarterfinals. Wild card Lam, 13, came from 5-2 down in the first set to defeat unseeded Anushka Khune 7-6(2), 6-0; unseeded Iva Jovic, 14, came from two breaks down in the third set to beat No. 16 seed Alexia Harmon 6-2, 5-7, 7-5; Rabman, 16, came from a set down to beat No. 11 seed Gracie Epps 2-6, 6-3, 6-2.

One of the three will definitely be eliminated Friday, with Jovic and Rabman facing off. Isabella Chhiv defeated No. 6 seed Madeleine Jessup 6-1, 1-6, 6-2 and will play No. 4 seed Alexis Blokhina, who beat Gayathri Krishnan 6-3, 6-1.

Lam's opponent is No. 3 seed Reese Brantmeier, who defeated unseeded Taylor Goetz 6-1, 6-3.  The fourth quarterfinal features No. 8 seed Ava Krug, who defeated Mika Ikemori 5-7, 6-2, 6-2 and No. 2 seed Qavia Lopez, who beat No. 13 seed Tatum Evans 7-6(3), 6-3.

In the 16s quarterfinals today, top seed Andrew Ena retired to unseeded Parashar Bharadwaj trailing 6-2, 1-1. Bharadway will face No. 3 seed Cyrus Mahjoob in the semifinals. The other 16s semifinal on Friday will feature No. 9 seed Zhengqing Ji and unseeded William Manning.

In the girls 16s semifinals, unseeded Claire Zhang will face Valerie Glozman, a No. 5 seed, while unseeded Sydney Jara will play No. 9 seed Aspen Schuman.

Draws for the 12s, 14s and 16s are at the USTA Playtennis site.

Live streaming is available at Easterbowl.com.