Combs Saves Match Points, Ousts Top Seed Cleary to Reach FILA Easter Bowl 14s Quarterfinals; All Four No. 4 Seeds Lose in Third Round as Desert Heat Approaches 100 Degrees

©Colette Lewis 2025--
Indian Wells CA--

By the time Boys 12s top seed James Borchard took the court at 12:30 p.m. for his third round match against Jungmin Lee, the temperature at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden was already 95 degrees. With cloudless skies and almost no wind, spectators were seeking any shade they could find, officials were suggesting ice bags from the trainers when players checked in for their matches, and three-hour matches were the norm, with everyone moving slower to conserve energy.  Borchard limited his time on court, with a relatively quick 6-2, 6-1 victory, but when the 14s took the courts around 2:30 p.m. the temperature had risen to 97, where it stayed the remainder of the afternoon.

Three of the girls 14s matches didn't finish until 6 p.m. or later, at which time the first Easter Bowl No. 1 seed was eliminated when No. 9 seed Emery Combs beat Madeline Cleary 7-5, 1-6, 7-5.

The match was a classic example of an exceptional defender playing an aggressive attacker and Cleary came exceedingly close to counterpunching her way to a victory. Down 2-0 in the third set, Cleary won five straight games, with Combs struggling with her first serve and Cleary's defense. Down 0-30 in her 2-5 service game after a double fault, Combs found her form, winning the next six points. Cleary, who had made no unforced errors in the five previous games, donated a couple when trying to serve out the match to go down 15-40. She got the game back to deuce but Combs forehand came through for her in the next two points, forcing an error and putting away a short ball to get back on serve.

Combs still had to hold serve to extend the match and Cleary applied pressure with some great defense to earn two match points at 15-40.  After struggling with her first serve throughout the set, Combs made two big first serves at the most opportune time, with Cleary unable to get either one back in play. Closing out the game with a backhand winner, Combs had the momentum and Cleary began to feel the pressure, double faulting and making a rare unforced error on the way to being broken at love. 

After an ace to go up 30-15, Combs double faulted, but she hit consecutive forehand winners, to complete the comeback.

A flushed Combs admitted that the heat was different from what she is used to in South Carolina, but that wasn't the reason she was playing to finish points quickly.

"That's just how I play," said the 2025 Les Petits As semifinalist, who was playing her first competitive tournament since she suffered an injury in France at the end of January. "I'm a very aggressive player looking to come in. When I was down, just prayed, told myself I have the game to win and she has all the pressure, and that really helped me at that point."

Combs also thought their contrasting paths to the third round might have made a difference at the end. Cleary had not lost a game in her first two matches, while Combs had to come from a set down both days.

"The injury could have had something to do with that, but the first two girls that I played, I was nervous, first of all, and they brought their best games," Combs said. "They played great tennis and there wasn't much I could do. I just had to stay calm and fight through it. She hasn't dealt with that in this tournament and in the third set I definitely had an advantage. I'm used to it, I just played two third sets already."

Combs will face No. 9 seed Molly Widlansky, who had the shortest girls 14s third round match of the day, beating No. 9 seed Ania Zabost 6-1, 6-3.

USTA Winter Nationals 14s champion London Evans, seeded No. 7, won a marathon match with unseeded Alicia Londono, before escaping with a 5-7, 6-3, 7-6(6) victory. She will face No. 3 seed Allison Wang, who also was pushed to the limit before getting past No. 9 seed Anya Arora 7-5, 2-6, 6-4, in a match that was moved to Stadium Court 4. The heat lengthened matches to the point where three courts at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden that had been reserved for practice were added to get main draw matches on court.

All four No. 4 seeds were eliminated from the main draw today, all in straight sets. No. 9 seed Abigail Haile beat girls 14s No. 4 Anna Scott Laney 7-6(4), 6-2 and in the boys 12s, Haris Shahbaz, a No. 9 seed, defeated No. 4 Jason Ye 6-2, 6-3. In the boys 14s, Carter Jauffret, a No. 9 seed, beat Mason Menyhart 6-3, 7-5, and in the girls 12s, unseeded Cataleya Brown defeated Danielle Han 6-3, 6-1.

Boys 14s No. 2 seed Aayush Vartak lost to unseeded Adrian Sharma 6-1, 3-6, 6-1.

Indra Vergne in final game under the lights

One third round match went so late that the lights were turned on Practice Court 8 for the conclusion of the boys 14s contest between Om Chitale and Indra Vergne. As the crowd gathered, standing five deep behind the court as the FILA player party DJ provided musical accompaniment, Vergne emerged with a 7-5, 5-7, 7-5 win, breaking in the last game of the four-hour and 20-minute match (which did include breaks between the first and second sets (5 min for heat) and second and third sets (standard USTA rules).

The boys 14s and girls 12s quarterfinals will be played at Palm Valley Country Club Tuesday, with the girls 14s and boys 12s at Indian Wells Tennis Garden.

The 16 and 18s begin play Tuesday, with the temperatures expected to exceed 100 degrees. See my post from Sunday for a list of seeds.

Draws and all results from Monday are available at the USTA tournament site.

FILA Easter Bowl quarterfinals Tuesday:

B12s (Indian Wells)

James Borchard[1] v William McGugin[5]

Haris Shahbaz[9] v Keita Iida[9]

Chris Deng[7] v Udham Singh[3]

Evan Fan[2] v Keita Iwata[6]

B14s (Palm Valley CC)

Rafael Pawar[1] v Dylan Meineke[5]

Carter Jauffret[9] v Zesen Wang[6]

Arjun Krishnan[8] v Indra Vergne

Joshua Dolinksy[7] v Adrian Sharma

G12s (Palm Valley CC)

Lucy Dupere[1] v Alisa Shifrin

Cataleya Brown v Skylar Mandell

Inie Toli[8] v Violetta Mamina[3]

Kareena Cross[5] v Gabrielle Alexa Villegas[2]

G14s (Indian Wells)

Emery Combs[9] v Molly Widlansky[9]

Allison Wang[3] v London Evans[7]

Nikol Davletshina v Abigail Haile[9]

Daniela del Mastro[6] v Olivia Lin[2]