Air Quality Alert Leaves Two FILA Easter Bowl 14s Finalists Undecided; Top Seeds Advance to 12s Finals; Second Round Incomplete in 16s and 18s; Blanch Beats Maloney at Calabasas $25K

©Colette Lewis 2025--
Indian Wells CA--

The weather this month in Indian Wells has gone from cool and damp during the second week of the BNP Paribas Open to 100 degrees Tuesday at the FILA Easter Bowl and Wednesday brought a new condition to contend with in the form of blowing dust.

Just after 12:30 p.m., play was suspended at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden site, with the air quality reaching hazardous levels for "extended or intense" physical activities. Each court stopped at their next changeover, so unlike a rain delay, there were no game scores to keep track of, just games and who was serving. The 12s semifinals were completed before the suspension of play, as all were in straight sets, but the noon semifinals for the 14s were in the first sets at the first suspension. Play resumed a little less than hour later, and two of the 14s semifinals were completed in the 45 minutes before the second, and final suspension came, with the two others to be finished Thursday.

The top seeds in the 12s advanced to the final, with Lucy Dupere defeating unseeded Cataleya Brown 6-1, 6-2 and No. 5 seed Kareena Cross beating No. 3 seed Violetta Mamina 6-1, 6-3.  Dupere has been dominating opponents this week, having dropped only 11 games in her five victories. A finalist at the USTA Winter Nationals, Dupere will again meet Cross at a level 1, with Dupere winning their quarterfinal match in San Antonio 7-6(5), 7-6(5). 

"I lost to her at Winters 6-7, 6-7, so it was very close, so I hope redeem myself," said Cross, who won the back draw after that loss, beating Mamina 6-0, 6-0 to finish fifth at the Winter Nationals. 

Cross, who has worked with the late Robert Lansdorp and is now coached by Alexandra Stevenson, will be playing in her first Level 1 final, but she managed to avoid thinking about that possibility in the second set.

"I just focus on one point at a time, so I didn't really think about the finals, getting to the finals, I was just focused on each point," said Cross, who has played Mamina on several occasions, and wasn't bothered by the emotional reactions on the other side of the net.  "I play a lot of emotional players, and I think everyone is emotional, including me sometimes, I have to admit. But I'm kind of used to it."

In the boys 12s semifinals, top seed James Borchand, who reached the singles semifinals last year and won the doubles title, has advanced one step further this year, beating No. 9 seed Haris Shahbaz 6-2, 6-0. Borchand will face No. 3 seed Udham Singh, who won the closest match in the 12s, beating No. 2 seed Evan Fan 6-4, 6-4.

Singh, who lost in the first round at last year's Easter Bowl, was down a break with Fan serving at 4-3 in the second set, broke back at love, then saved a break point in a three-deuce game to take the lead. Fan went up 40-0 serving at 4-5, but couldn't close out the game, with Singh converting his third match point after three deuces.

"I think whenever the match was slightly tighter, I played pretty well," said the left-handed Singh, who is from Northern California but is currently training at the Dent Tennis Academy in Texas. "I locked in and didn't make as many errors. But I think when I had my chances early on in the sets I missed them, made too many errors."

Singh said he wasn't sure how he'd perform in this tournament. "I wasn't really expecting much, we were making some changes to my game, so we were just here really for practice," said Singh, who will be playing in his first Level 1 final. "It's nice to get deep in the tournament."

For a Desert Sun article on Borchard and Nikol Davletshina, who lost Tuesday, click here.

The third top seed playing for an Easter Bowl title is Rafael Pawar, who defeated No. 6 seed Zesen Wang 6-3, 6-2. Pawar will play the winner of the suspended semifinal between No. 8 seed Arjun Krishnan and unseeded Adrian Sharma, with Krishnan having taken the first set in that semifinal.

No. 3 seed Allison Wang, who won the 14s Clay Court title last summer, advanced to the final with a 6-0, 6-3 win over No. 9 seed Molly Widlansky. She will play the winner of the suspended semifinal between No. 9 seed Abigail Haile and No. 6 seed Daniela del Mastro. Haile saved two set points in the first set tiebreaker at 5-6 and 6-7, converting her first set point with a forehand winner. Del Mastro won the first game of the second set when play was suspended. 

In the boys 18s, top seed Shaan Patel needed over two hours, but got past Drew Hedgecoe 6-3, 6-4, with three top eight seeds losing in the incomplete second round.  Rishvanth Krishna defeated No. 5 seed Blake Anderson 6-3, 6-1; Benjamin Berger beat No. 6 seed Nicholas Patrick 6-3 ,6-1 and Tyler Lee defeated No. 7 seed Andre Alcantara 6-3, 0-6, 6-4.  

Girls 18s top seed Thara Gowda received a walkover from Katie Spencer, while No. 2 seed JoAnna Kennedy was in top form with a 6-0, 6-0 win over Teresa Tran.  2024 Easter Bowl 16s champion Bella Payne advanced to the third round with a 6-1, 6-4 win over Maya Chen.

The boys 16s third round will feature a rematch of the 2024 boys 14s semifinal, in which Izyan Ahmad defeated Safir Azam 6-4, 6-2. Azam, the No. 1 seed this year in the 16s, defeated Peyton Barrett 6-0, 6-4, while wild card Ahmad, who is unseeded, beat No. 9 seed Gurjot Singh 6-2, 6-1.

No. 2 seed Alexander Suhanitski and Erik Schinnerer are at 4-all in the third set in a to-be-completed second round match.

All of the doubles on the schedule, including the 12s and 14s semifinals were canceled.

The air quality alert is in place through Friday at midnight, so there is no guarantee that Thursday's play will be continuous.

Check the USTA tournament website for match times.

At the men's $25,000 USTA Pro Circuit tournament in Calabasas California, two young wild cards lost their first round matches today, with Noah Johnston losing to Johannus Monday(Tennessee) of Great Britain 7-5, 6-2 and Alex Frusina(Auburn) falling to No. 8 seed Andres Martin(Georgia Tech) 6-0, 6-2.

Darwin Blanch, back in the United States for the Miami Open qualifying, traveled to the West Coast for this event, and beat No. 5 seed Patrick Maloney(Michigan) 6-1, 6-0.