Top Seeds in FILA Easter Bowl 14s Absent From Monday's Round of 16; Lian and Glozman Top Seeds in 18s, Hill and Mosejczuk No. 1 in16s Divisions; Ponwith Defeats Michelsen in Calabasas $25K Final, Williams Takes Doubles Title

©Colette Lewis 2023--

Indian Wells CA--

Players wait to spin for FILA prizes at the Easter Bowl
player party Sunday evening

The 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.

B12s

1. Zesen Wang

2. Dylan Meineke

3. Luca Queiroz

4. Carter Jauffret

5. Adrian Sharma

6. Jason Eigbedion

7. Advay Singh

8. Danile Gardality

B14s

1. Colin McPeek (out rd 2)

2. Liam Alvarez

3. Ryan Cozad

4. Ilias Bouzoubaa (out rd 1)

5. Navneet Raghuram (out rd 2)

6. Joseph Nau

7. Roshan Santhosh

8. Erik Schinnerer

G12s

1. Grace Hong (withdrew)

2. Caroline Shao

3. Allison Wang (out rd 2)

4. Raya Kotseva

5. Daniela Del Mastro

6. Michelle Lee (out rd 1)

7. Aarini Bhattacharya

8. Enya Hamilton

G14s

1. Carrie-Anne Hoo (out rd 1)

2. Nancy Lee

3. Isabelle DeLuccia (out rd 2)

4. Abigail Gordon (out rd 2)

5. Anita Tu

6. Alyson Shannon (out rd 2)

7. Ireland O'Brien (out rd 1)

8. Anna Bugaienko

The 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.

B16s

1. Dominick Mosejczuk

2. Mitchell Sheldon

3. Ian Mayew

4. Ian Bracks

5. Maxim Kalinin

6. Nav Dayal

7. Nolan Balthazor

8. Nicholas Mekhael

B18s

1. James Lian

2. Stephan Gershfeld

3. Tygen Goldammer

4. Alex Fuchs

5. Cassius Chinlund

6. Niels Hoffman

7. Emon van Loben Sels

8. Marko Mesarovic

G16s

1. Claire Hill

2. Leena Friedman

3. Alanis Hamilton

4. Christina Lyutova

5. Kayla Chung

6. Rachel Lee

7. Mary Grace Rennard

8. Claire An

G18s

1. Valerie Glozman

2. Tianmei Wang

3. Sari Woo

4. Maddy Zampardo

5. Aspen Schuman

6. Susanna Maltby

7. Capucine Jauffret

8. Esha Velaga

Matches 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.