FILA Easter Bowl 16s Begins with Harding's Ouster of Top Seed; Auburn Teammates Assist in Pettingell's Win Over No. 2 Seed in 18s; Semifinals Set in 12s and 14s as Desert Heat Continues; Calabasas $25K Qualifying Complete, Monday Aims for Second Straight Title

©Colette Lewis 2025--
Indian Wells, CA--

Temperatures peaking at 100 degrees Tuesday at the FILA Easter Bowl would normally dominate the conversation at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden, but big upsets at the start of the 16s and 18s tournament took center stage, with the girls 16s losing No. 1 seed Anna Bugaienko and, in the boys 18s, No. 2 seed Drew Fishback bowing out.

Bugaienko lost to wild card Ciara Harding 7-6(3), 6-2, with Harding coming into the Easter Bowl after a successful week at the ITF J300 North American Regional Championships in San Diego, where she qualified, and won a round before falling to top seed and Australian Open finalist Kristina Penickova 6-2, 7-6(3).

"I had a great week last week, great experience and a lot of matches, so I think it was definitely an advantage," said the 15-year-old from Florida. "I got a wild card, because recently I've just been playing ITFs, so I just wanted to come here, not put any pressure on myself and just play my game."

Harding said she was not disappointed to see that she had drawn the No. 1 seed. 

"I knew my opponent, I've known her a few years, we've played doubles together before," Harding said. "So I knew it was going to be a great match, it was going to be a battle, good competition, so I was actually excited to come in and play."

Harding fought back from 5-3 down in the opening set, but said she found her game in the tiebreaker and took control from there. 

"I knew if I could just stay in the points, aggressive but still consistent, I knew I could get back into the match and getback into the set," Harding said. "By the tiebreaker I was going for everything, attacking with my forehand. In the second set, I felt a lot better with my game and I had a high first serve percentage in the second set."

After getting an insurance break to go up 5-2 in the second, Harding eliminated any drama by getting all four of her first serves in. Bugaienko didn't get three of them back in play, and Harding's forehand forced an error, and ideal way to close out a match against the No. 1 seed.

"That was a great game," said Harding, who felt no pressure in that moment. "I was just going to compete and play my game, so there was nothing to be nervous about, I guess."

Harding will face Yui Watanbe in the second round Wednesday.

After dropping the first set today against Boning Wang, boys 16s top seed Safir Azam was having flashbacks to last year's Easter Bowl 14s, where, also as the No. 1 seed, he had to save match points in the first round.

It wasn't quite that dramatic today, but he did need to work hard to post a 3-6, 6-1, 6-3 victory.

"I never seem to get the first round win in straights," said the 15-year-old from Washington, who reached the semifinals in 2024. "Last year, the same thing happened, I lost the first set and came back. This time I didn't face any match points, last year I saved four. After losing that first set, I kind of had that deja vu, and I didn't want to be in that position again."

Azam travels to Orlando regularly to train with the USTA, so he said he is accustomed to the heat. 

"The conditions are a lot worse than this," said Azam, who has won the last two USTA Level 1 Boys 16s titles with the Indoors in November and the Winter Nationals in January. "It's the same heat, with humidity, so this is definitely easier when you have that experience with Orlando."

As for being a No. seed 1, which he has a lot of experience with, Azam doesn't care for it.

"It's not fun, everyone's out to beat you, I hate being No. 1," said Azam, who faces Peyton Barrett Wednesday. "I just want to stay low profile. I'd prefer to be unseeded."

The top seeds in the 18s had no trouble in their first round matches, with Shaan Patel, the 18s Winter National champion,  defeating Troy Kudrjavtsev 6-1, 6-1 and Thara Gowda beating Jariahlyn Rhoades 6-3, 6-2.

But the upset of day in the boys 18s came on remote Practice Court 19, with Max Pettingell defeated No. 2 seed Drew Fishback 6-1, 7-5.

Fishback struggled with his game in the opening set, but took a 3-1 lead in the second only to watch the Auburn redshirt freshman come back to take six of the last eight games. 

Pettingell, who reached the Clay Court quarterfinals last summer, joined Auburn last fall, and he credits the last six months of training there as a key to his improvement.

"I'm really happy with the training I'm getting there," said the 18-year-old from Sarasota Florida. "We all get along really well there, everyone just wants to improve and get better. It's great to have a group of guys like your family to be the best that you can and it's really improved my level."

Pettingell didn't hold back in the rallies, even when trailing 1-3 in the third, as Fishback began staying in points longer and eliminating his unforced errors. But with not much match play to draw on, Pettingell had to keep believing that the style he had been practicing would prevail in the end.

"I was moving forward, hitting some big balls, just trying to play that college style that my teammates inspire me to play," Pettingell said.

Getting his first serve in was also a strategy he executed perfectly in the later stages of the second set.

"I was trying to make every first serve that I could, I was probably serving upwards of 80 percent," Pettingell said. "I just tried to be bold, be brave and take it to him. And to all the juniors out there, your coaches aren't lying when they tell you to make first serves. It's a massive part of the game and it's really under-appreciated."

After Fishback had held at love to stay in the match serving at 4-5, he couldn't duplicate that in his next service game, with the unforced errors that he eliminated in the second set reappearing at the worst possible time and he was broken at love. 

Pettingell will face Brayden Tallakson in the second round Wednesday. 

2024 Girls 16s Easter Bowl champion Bella Payne extended her winning streak with a 6-1, 6-1 win over No. 5 seed Chloe Qin, and  No. 3 seed Carrie-Anne Hoo was beaten by Amy Lee 6-4, 6-3.

The 12s singles semifinals are set for 10 a.m. Wednesday, with the 14s scheduled for noon. Temperatures expected to be slightly cooler Wednesday, although still in the mid-90s. Below are the results of the today's quarterfinals.

B12s

James Borchard[1] d. William McGugin[5] 7-6(1), 6-4

Haris Shahbaz[9] d. Keita Iida[9] 6-3, 6-4

Udham Singh[3] d. Chris Deng[7] 6-2, 6-0 

Evan Fan[2] d. Keita Iwata[6] 1-6, 6-1, 6-0

B14s

Rafael Pawar[1] d. Dylan Meineke[5] 7-6(2), 3-6, 7-6(4)

Zesen Wang[6] d. Carter Jauffret[9] 7-6(6), 6-2

Arjun Krishnan[8] d. Indra Vergne 6-1, 3-6, 6-3

Adrian Sharma d. Joshua Dolinksy[7] 6-2, 7-5

G12s

Lucy Dupere[1] d. Alisa Shifrin 6-0, 6-0

Cataleya Brown d. Skylar Mandell 4-6, 7-6(5), 7-5

Violetta Mamina[3] d. Inie Toli[8] 6-4, 6-4

Kareena Cross[5] d. Gabrielle Alexa Villegas[2] 7-6(2), 6-1

G14s

Molly Widlansky[9] d. Emery Combs[9] 6-2, 6-2

Allison Wang[3] d. London Evans[7] 6-1, 6-4

Abigail Haile[9] d. Nikol Davletshina 6-3, 2-6, 6-3

Daniela del Mastro[6] d, Olivia Lin[2] 6-2, 6-2

The USTA Pro Circuit remains in California this week, with qualifying complete at the $25,000 men's tournament in Calabasas.

Pepperdine is well represented in the draw, with freshmen David Fix and Lasse Poertner and junior Maxi Homberg qualifying today, and sophomore Edward Winter already in the main draw on his own ranking. Winter defeated No. 2 seed Charlie Broom (Dartmouth, Baylor) of Great Britain 7-6(4), 7-6(4) in the first round today.

Darwin Blanch is the draw on his ranking, with wild cards going to Noah Johnston, Ian Mayew, Auburn freshman Alex Frusina and Ryan Nuno(Azusa Pacific). Americans qualifying today are Ron Hohmann(LSU, Michigan State) and Keshav Chopra(Georgia Tech).

Bakersfield $25K champion Johannes Monday(Tennessee) of Great Britain is the top seed.

In last week's ITF Junior Circuit results for Americans, Maxwell Exsted won the doubles title at the J300 in Spain with partner Karim Bennani of Morocco. The No. 3 seeds defeated No. 2 seeds Niels McDonald and Jamie Mackenzie of Germany 1-6, 6-4, 10-8 in the final. 

At the J30 in Puerto Rico, 15-year-old Rowan Qalbani swept the titles, with the No. 8 seed defeating No. 3 seed Rodrigo Guijarro Martin of Spain 6-3, 6-4 in the singles final. He partners with Nick Mertgens of Germany for the doubles title, with the top seeds beating the eighth-seeded American team of David Bvunzawabaya and Pedro Vargas 6-1, 6-3 in the championship match.