Rain, Wind Disrupt Day One at ITF Grade B1 FILA Easter Bowl, but Top Three Boys Seeds Earn Victories; Quarterfinals Set for Tuesday in 12s and 14s Divisions

©Colette Lewis 2022--
Indian Wells CA--

The ITF Grade B1 FILA Easter Bowl got off to an unusual start Monday, with rain making its way over the mountains in the afternoon and ultimately leaving eight girls first round matches unfinished.

All of the boys first round singles matches did finish before the heaviest of several afternoon showers led to the cancellation of play shortly after 6 p.m.

Two of the longest matches of the day were on Court 2, the tournament's Stadium Court, with Landon Ardila defeating No. 13 seed Preston Stearns 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 in three hours, with No. 3 seed Nicholas Godsick then needing three more hours to get past Jayanth Devaiah 3-6, 6-4, 6-4.

Godsick was up a break at 3-2 in the second set, but the worst of the wind kicked up then, and both players struggled with their  toss when serving and getting any depth on their groundstrokes. With winds over 20 mph, hitting through it was impossible, so adjustments were necessary, and Godsick eventually made them, getting the break at 4-4 all in both the second and third sets to get through.

After a nearly four-match to open the San Diego J1 last week, Godsick was unlikely to be overconfident against the Notre Dame recruit, who fought to the very end, forcing Godsick to deuce in the last service game before the ITF's No. 31 closed it out.

Godsick and Devaiah were not the only players battling through the wind, as anyone playing around 3 p.m. had the same problems. Taylor Goetz missed eight straight serves to double fault the game away in her match with Ava Bruno on Court 17, one of the matches that did not finish.

The lucky ones were the boys who played early in the day, including top seed Ethan Quinn and No. 2 seed Nishesh Basavareddy. Quinn, who reached the Easter Bowl ITF final last year, defeated Dylan Tsoi 6-2, 6-2 and Basavareddy beat Nikita Filin 6-2, 6-1.

Basavareddy did not play the San Diego J1 tournament last week, opting instead for qualifying at the Calabasas $25,000 USTA Pro Circuit event, but with back-to-back titles last month on clay in Brazil, he was comfortable playing on the slow hard courts that are the norm at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden.

"Red clay is probably my favorite surface," said the 16-year-old from Carmel Indiana. "I know I play more on hard, but I do like clay and it definitely suits my game well."

Arriving in Brazil without knowing if he would even get into qualifying at the Grade 1 the first week, Basavareddy won eight matches to take that title, and five more the next week at the Grade A, so with his victory today has extended his ITF junior circuit winning streak to 14.

"Qualies gave me quite a bit of time to really get in my groove," Basavareddy said. "Once I got going it started getting better and better, and by then end of that tournament I was really playing my best tennis. In the final, (a 6-0, 6-1 win over top seed Gonazlo Bueno) I made less than five unforced errors, which is unbelievable. Then I just kept the momentum going."

After being out most of 2021 with injuries, Basavareddy did retire in a Grade 1 in January, but he said it was a lack of fitness, not an injury that was responsible.

"My first two tournaments this year I cramped," Basavareddy said. "I had to withdraw from one and the others I was barely walking at the end. I think it was a lack of match fitness. So when I went to Brazil, I tried to take extra precautions, talked to a bunch of doctors and coaches about it and they helped me. I played a couple of long three-setters and it was good to see my fitness held up, and their physical therapists there were unbelievable. I got a massage every day, which definitely helped."

With his goal to play the junior slams this summer before heading to Stanford this fall, Basavareddy accomplished that with his success during those two weeks, improving his ITF junior ranking to 24.

"I wanted to do well in the South American tournaments to take some of the pressure off me here, get into the main draw of those slams," Basavareddy said. "Now I can just play here more freely now, continue to build my ranking and improve my game."

Basavareddy also will have a chance to earn the Easter Bowl title that eluded him the only other time he's played here, back in the 12s in 2017. He lost to Kyle Kang 6-2, 6-4 on the same court where he won his match today, Court 1. Kang and Basavareddy are playing doubles together this week and are the No. 6 seeds.

Basavareddy has gone to regular school throughout his career and will graduate this spring, but his last semester of his senior year will not be a normal one. 

"Since I was injured for so long, my school made a deal with me that this semester I could miss a lot to travel and the teachers are working with me when I'm on the road," Basavareddy said. "But I still have to go back one to two weeks out of a month until May. I'll be going to Europe then, missing the last two, three weeks of school."

Basavareddy said making his college choice was not easy.

"It was a tough decision," Basavareddy said. "I took four official visits: Stanford, Illinois, Michigan and Texas. It was between those four and it was down to the very end, and it was pretty tough for me. But I thought Stanford was the best fit for me; I really liked the coaches and the guys on the team, the California weather."

Basavareddy will play the winner of Tuesday's match between lucky loser Garen Spicka and Alexander Visser on Wednesday.

Stearns was the only boys seed of the ten in action who failed to advance; two girls seeds lost, with Meera Jesudason defeating No. 9 seed Gabriella Broadfoot 5-7, 6-3, 7-5 and Gayathri Krishnan beating No. 15 seed Ashton Bowers 6-2, 6-2.

No. 2 seed Qavia Lopez was up a set in her match with wild card Natalie Block and No. 3 seed Reese Brantmeier was up a set in her match with Winter National 18s champion Piper Charney when play was canceled for the day. San Diego champion and top seed Liv Hovde play Kaitlyn Rolls in her first round match Tuesday.

The remaining first round ITF singles matches will begin at 10 a.m. Tuesday, along with all 32 first round doubles matches. Quinn and Godsick are the top seeds in the boys draw, with Liv Hovde and Qavia Lopez the No. 1 seeds in the girls doubles.

Steve Pratt's coverage from today's action for the Easter Bowl website is here.

Live streaming is available this week on Courts 1 and 2, with the links at easterbowl.com. Archived matches are also available. The 14s will be playing their quarterfinals on those two courts on Tuesday. Ken Thomas will also be providing coverage Tuesday at radiotennis.com.

The top seed in the girls 12s, Lani Chang, the daughter of former ATP star Michael Chang and two-time NCAA champion at Stanford Amber Liu, was upset in today's third round action at Palm Valley Country Club. Julia Seversen defeated Chang 6-4, 6-0.

Boys 14s No. 2 seed Jagger Leach lost Sunday to Rishvanth Krishna 7-5, 7-5, and in today's first round in the 16s, No. 2 seed Eva Oxford was ousted by Emily Baek 6-3, 1-6, 6-1. 

For all the results from the 12s, 14s and 16s, see the USTA's playtennis site.