ITF J300 Indian Wells Recap; Penickova Returns to San Diego Final via Third Set Tiebreaker, Secord and Satterfield Meet Again, Doubles Champions Crowned; Seeds for Saturday's USTA L1 Easter Bowl 12s and 14s; Leach, Svajda Fall in Bakersfield $25K

©Colette Lewis 2025--
San Diego CA--

Before starting my report on Friday's singles semifinals and doubles finals at the ITF J300 North American Regional Championships in San Diego, you can read my recap of last week's Americans' sweep of the ITF J300 FILA International Championships titles at Indian Wells. If you weren't able to follow my daily coverage, this provides an overview of the runs to the singles titles by Jagger Leach and Julieta Pareja and the doubles championships won by Leach and Noah Johnston and Leena Friedman and Thea Frodin.

On another sunny and cool day at the Barnes Tennis Center, top seed Kristina Penickova and unseeded Zaire Clarke provided the heat, with Penickova advancing to the San Diego final for the second straight year with a heart-stopping 6-7(1), 6-3, 7-6(4) victory.

The two 15-year-olds didn't hold back in any rally, with both hitting with great depth and pace. Down a set and at 3-3 in the second, Penickova, No. 3 in the ITF junior rankings, found another gear to force a third set, and went up 4-1 in the second. But Clarke, No. 171 in the ITF junior rankings, was not ready to concede, even when Penickova saved five break points to take a 5-2 lead. 

Clarke held to force Penickova to serve it out, using the change of pace of two consecutive drop shot winners to bring it to 30-all. An unforced forehand error from Clarke, and I used the term loosely, as nearly every error was the result of a lengthy rally with both girls going at full blast, gave Penickova her first match point, but she just missed a forehand. She missed out on a second match point with a netted forehand, unusually early in the point, and when Clarke bombed a backhand winner to earn a break point, Penickova showed some nerves, double faulting for 5-4.

Clarke played a confident game in a tense position holding for 5-all and had four break points in the next game, but Penickova fought off each one, with Clarke especially frustrated when her drop shot didn't clear the net on the fourth. Penickova held on her first game point, and Clarke again had to serve to stay in the match. 

Down 15-40, Clarke saved those two match points and one more, continuing to hit boldly despite the precarity of her situation. Penickova was frustrated by her inability to return Clarke's second serve, of which there were many in that game, and Clarke held to force the tiebreaker.

In the tiebreaker, Clarke missed a couple of backhands, but steadied herself to keep within range, trailing 4-2 at the change of ends. Penickova hit a good second serve for a 5-3 lead and earned three more match points, when Clarke's backhand went wide, but Clarke saved her sixth match point with a drop shot lob combination. Clarke struck a good first serve on match point No. 7, but Penickova's return was better to end the three-hour battle.

"Not my best performance, but I was happy to get through it," Penickova said. "The most important thing was that I didn't go away. She was playing really well, serving amazing, playing amazing, so I have to give that to her. I wasn't too happy with the calls from the ref, so that might have thrown me off a little, but I'm proud of myself for fighting. And to be in the finals again, it feels really good."

Penickova, who won two third set tiebreakers from a set down in her first two matches en route to the Australian Open girls final, admitted all those match points took a toll.

"I had definitely so many, so many chances, six match points, that's obviously a little tough to take," Penickova said. "But the world doesn't end, you just move on. You try to forget about it, think about it after the match, but it that moment you have to literally pretend it never happened."

Penickova had a disappointing second round loss as the top seed last week at Indian Wells, but was optimistic coming to San Diego.

"These courts are definitely faster (than Indian Wells) and I'd say it suits my game a little bit better," said Penickova, who lost in the first round of Indian Wells last year but then went on to reach the final, losing to Iva Jovic. "So even from last year, I kind of had that experience, came into this, reset, still really confident because that was just one bad match, and I knew from last year the courts were a little bit better for my game."

Penickova will face another unseeded player for the title, and one even younger than she is, after 14-year-old Raya Kostseva defeated No. 5 seed Capucine Jauffret 6-2, 6-1, a semifinal nearly two hours shorter than Penickova's. 

Kosteva, who will be playing in her first J300 final after coming from 6-1 down in a third set tiebreaker in her first round win over Calla McGill, wasn't prepared for a run like this.

"I didn't expect to go this far, at all," said the right-hander from Las Vegas, who has beaten four seeds since that first round escape, the last three in straight sets. "I beat players that I did not expect to beat that easily; I expected to go to a third set, maybe lose, maybe win, just go out there and try my best, but I'm very proud of my performance so far."

Jauffret had beaten Kotseva 6-1, 6-3 in the second round of the J300 in Costa Rica in January, although she had previously posted a win over Jauffret last fall in the J300 in Houston.

"Everything was different," Kotseva said. "In Costa Rica I was not in my best form, I wasn't feeling my best, my strokes weren't there, nothing was there really. But today, I really focused and went out there and everything was perfect almost. I believed in myself in Houston, but here, I believe in myself even more, am more confident even."

Kosteva and Penickova have not played, although Kotseva lost to her twin sister Annika in the Houston quarterfinals.

The boys semifinals were completed quickly, with top seed and Australian Open finalist Ben Willwerth retiring with a hip injury trailing No. 6 seed Jack Secord 5-2 in the first set. Secord, not one hundred percent physically himself, received a walkover into the semifinals from No. 4 seed Maximus Dussault and is now in his second J300 final after today's retirement.

"It's funny, I don't know how life works, but two defaults is a little crazy," said the 16-year-old left-hander from Illinois, who is playing with a compression sleeve on his right leg. "I hurt it my match with Ronit (Karki) in Indian Wells, and I've been struggling with it a little bit. They just said to rest, not play any tennis, which is not the time I wanted to hear that."

Secord, who reached his first J300 final in Colombia in January, was not optimistic coming into San Diego.

"It's a little crazy, I was thinking about not even playing the tournament actually," Secord said. "It's a definitely a blessing that I get to be in the final, even with my leg."

Secord will play No. 5 seed Jack Satterfield, who beat No. 8 seed Lachlan Gaskell 6-4, 6-2. With their last meeting in May of 2024 decided in Satterfield's favor 6-4 in the third, a straight-sets victory wasn't what Satterfield expected.

"At the end of the second set, he definitely got pretty tired," said Satterfield, a 17-year-old from Florida. "It was a complete grind. Usually he goes a lot bigger on his forehand, and I like that because I deflect it pretty well, so I think he was trying to play a little more patient this time. It was working but I don't think he was used to it. I was moving him a lot, so I think he got pretty tired, so he kind of quit in the second."

Secord and Satterfield played recently in the semifinals of the J300 in Colombia, with unusual circumstances leading to a win for Secord. After Satterfield had won a second set tiebreaker to force a third, he took a toilet break, and because he took a shower during that break, he was defaulted, giving Secord a 3-6, 7-6(3) victory.

Their previous major final was at the 2023 Eddie Herr, with Secord winning the 16s title with a tense 6-2, 3-6, 6-4 victory that featured great play from both.

"Every time we've played it's been a close third set," Satterfield said. "We were playing in Colombia and we couldn't finish the match. It was a great match and we were going into a third there, so I'm just excited to play him. Every time we have battles. And he's a great kid, so it's fun to play a good guy. I've lost two semis so far in South America, so I really wanted to get past this one. I'm excited."

The boys doubles final went the way of the newly formed team of Michael Antonius and Roshan Santhosh, with the No. 6 seeds defeating No. 5 seeds Simon Caldwell and Gavin Goode 6-4, 7-6(9).

Santhosh reached out to Antonius a few weeks ago, looking for a partner and Antonius was a quick yes.

"I thought we would be a good team," said Antonius, a 15-year-old from New York. "I've seen his hands before and they're just so smooth at the net, with his drop volleys and his lobs, they're unbelievable. We both had the shots, it was just how it would play out."

Santhosh and Antonius had survived a match tiebreaker in the semifinals, defeating unseeded Justin Riley Anson and Tyler Lee 2-6, 6-2, 10-7, so they weren't stressed when Santhosh was unable to serve out the match at 5-3. Goode was broken serving for the set at 6-5, and Santhosh pointed to that as a key to their win.

"They stepped it up, and the 6-5 game was the turning point," said Santhosh, a 16-year-old from California. "We played a solid match, but finishing it out got a bit tight at the end, the nerves and all that."

The subsequent tiebreaker was 6-6 at the second change of ends, after Antonius and Santhosh had saved a set point. They earned match points at 7-6 and 8-7, but failed to convert and Caldwell and Goode had another set point, on serve, but lost it, and after a double fault and a backhand wide, Santhosh and Antonius had claimed their first J300 title.

"Knowing we would have another chance (in a match tiebreaker) and that was their final attempt made it so we could play loose," Antonius said. "Sometimes I think it was too loose, at 5-3 maybe too casual, but it helped us in the tiebreaker to play some good shots and to stay solid."

The pair don't have any tournaments together coming up, but hope to play together again soon.

"If we're playing in the same tournament, we'll probably be playing doubles," Santhosh said. "Our schedules are different right now, but we'll definitely reach out to each other in another tournament," Antonius said.

The girls champions are undefeated as a doubles team this year, with top seeds Kristina and Annika Penickova, the Australian Open girls doubles champions winning their third title of 2025 with a 6-7(5), 6-2, 10-7 victory over No. 7 seeds Isabelle DeLuccia and Anita Tu.

The Penickovas, who now have ten ITF Junior Circuit titles together, insist they don't expect to win every event, despite adding this title to those at the J300 and junior slam in Australia in January.

"It's obviously amazing that we can play this well and keep winning, but you do expect to lose at some point," Kristina said. "You don't expect to win every tournament. It's great that we are, but..."  

"It's definitely a goal that you have for every tournament and when it's going great, it's going great," said Annika, the left-hander in the partnership. "You're not surprised by the losses, you accept them and move on, but that hasn't been the case this year so far, so that's good."

After losing the first set, the Penickovas made several adjustments.

"We were definitely more aggressive and were more active at the net," Kristina said. "I think we started reading them a bit better, adjusting a little in that sense, and started serving better as well, getting more free points with our serves. We played smarter and started to do more damage with our ground strokes as well."

Annika noted that their experience as a team goes much deeper than just matches played together.

"We just know each other really well, we're siblings, and have a little bit of like the doubles telepathy," Annika said. "We know what the other is going to do, how to they are going to react, what to anticipate, what they're going to hit, so I think that gives us a big advantage. We're just used to it."

Championship Saturday will begin with the boys final at 10 a.m. Pacific, followed by the girls final, not before noon.

The Easter Bowl begins Saturday for the 12s and 14s division at various locations in the Coachella Valley. The seeds are below; draws can be found here.

Boys 12s

1.James Borchard

2. Evan Fan

3. Udham Singh

4. Jason Ye

5. William McGugin

6. Keita Iwata

7. Chris Deng

8. Olie Rosa Hall

9. Ayaan Bangera

9. Gabriel Marino

9. Haris Shahbaz

9. Keita Iida

9. David Benedict

9. Thomas Gamble

9. Mateo Vincens

9. Pranav Madamanchi 

Girls 12s

1. Lucy Dupere

2. Gabrielle Alexa Villegas

3. Violetta Mamina

4. Danielle Han

5. Kareena Cross

6. Mila Mikoczi Spivey

7. Brielle Amey

8. Inie Toll

9. Daniella Yogumyan

9. Ocie Barran

9. Emma Li

9. Nicole Blanco

9. Angelina Zhang

9. Victoria Park

9. Grace Malhotra

9. Sofia Cannon

Boys 14s 

1. Rafael Pawar

2. Aayush Vartak

3. Gadin Arun

4. Mason Menyhart

5. Dylan Meineke

6. Zesen Wang

7. Joshua Dolinsky

8. Arjun Krishnan

9. Ved Vanga

9. Smyan Vijay

9. Carter Jauffret

9. Manas Kondapalli

9. Asher Yuan

9. Connor Feehan

9. Joseph Kim

9. Jason Eigbedion

Girls 14s

1. Madeline Cleary

2. Olivia Lin

3. Allison Wang

4. Anna Scott Laney

5. Shristi Selvan

6. Daniela del Mastro

7. London Evans

8. Ania Zabost

9. Emery Combs 

9. Molly Widlansky

9. Anya Arora

9. Kathryn Cragg

9. Sofia Kedrin

9. Abigail Haile

9. Tanvi Pandey

9. Natalie Frisbie

At the men's $25,000 USTA Pro Circuit tournament in Bakersfield California, wild card Jagger Leach's winning streak came to an end in the quarterfinals, with the future TCU Horned Frog losing to former TCU All American Alex Rybakov 6-1, 7-6(3). No. 7 seed Trevor Svajda, the SMU sophomore, lost to top seed Johannus Monday(Tennessee) of Great Britain 7-6(3), 2-6, 6-1.