My San Diego J300 Recap; All Four Top Seeds in 12s and 14s Reach Thursday's Easter Bowl Finals; No. 2 Seeds Fall in Boys and Girls 16s; Antonius, Johnson, Konduri and Karki Post Wins at Las Vegas M25

©Colette Lewis 2026--

Indian Wells CA--

Before I get to the action today, as the 12s and 14s Easter Bowl draws to a close and the 16s and 18s began to ramp up, here's my Tennis Recruiting Network recap of the ITF J300 North American Regional Championships last week in San Diego. Andy Johnson won his second straight J300 and Jordyn Hazelitt claimed her first singles at that level, while adding her third J300 doubles title, all coming this year. If you weren't able to follow my daily coverage, this article is a great way to get up to speed on one of the five ITF J300 tournaments held in the United States every year.

The finals are set in singles and doubles for the 12s and 14s divisions of the USTA National L1 Easter Bowl presented by adidas after semifinal action today at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden. All four of the No. 1 seeds will play for a title Thursday morning, with only one of them needing three sets to get the final, with the format reverting to best of three full sets in the semifinals after heat had led to match tiebreakers in lieu of a third set.

Boys 12s top seed Dmitriy Flyam had been cruising through the draw, dropping only seven games in his four previous wins, but No. 3 seed Thomas Gamble won six in the first set, only to see Flyam, the reigning USTA Winter Nationals champion relocate his form, taking next two full sets 6-0, 6-2. Flyam's opponent in the final will be Milan Nair, who beat fellow No. 9 seed Jesse Goldman 7-6(5), 0-6, 6-2.

Girls 12s top seed Chloe Anthony quickly dispatched No. 3 seed Valentina Singh-Caravajal 6-1, 6-1 to advance to the final against No. 4 seed Lindy Zhou. Zhou defeated Cordelia Skye, a No. 9 seed, 6-0, 6-1 in an all-Socal semifinal.

Girls 14s top seed Nadia Poznick has yet to drop a set in advancing to the final, but she had to come from 4-1 down in the second set against Nicole Alexandrovich, a No. 9 seed, to secure a 6-4, 6-4 victory.  Poznick, who reached the girls 12s semifinals two years ago, will play another No. 9 seed, Violetta Mamina, in for the title after Mamina frustrated unseeded Isabelle Nguyen 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 in a three-hour battle.  Mamina, who reached the girls 12s semifinals last year, had beaten Nguyen in a match tiebreaker at an L2 last month in Long Beach so she came armed with a strategy when facing her again today.

"When I played her a few weeks ago we had a four-hour match," said the 13-year-old from Henderson Nevada. "I knew she played really aggressive, so I knew if I played more on the defensive side that she'll start missing more. She really likes an aggressive game, so my strategy was to play high heavy until I get a short ball and then I attack."

Nguyen's frustration began to grow, as Mamina refused to give her any rhythm or pace. Although Nguyen hit many more winners, she also went for too much at key moments. Occasionally Nguyen, a 12s semifinalist two years ago, would respond in kind with a moon ball, but Mamina was much more committed to her strategy and she closed out the match with a love hold to reach the final.

Poznick and Mamina met in the final of the 2024 USTA 12s Clay Court Nationals, with Poznick winning 6-1, 6-2.

"I think I was very nervous to play her that year, because it was my first final, first time going very far and she was a much higher person than me," Mamina said. "And now, there's not that big of a difference, and now I think I'm more ready. I'll see what my strategy will be during the match. If something's working I'll do it, if something's not working, I'll stop it."

The boys 14s final will feature the top two seeds, with No. 1 Ishaan Marla facing No. 2 Michael Chervenkov. Both advanced in straight sets, with Chervenkov defeating No. 9 seed Prana Vignesh 6-1, 6-4 and Marla beating No. 3 seed Nathan Lee 7-6(4), 6-1, but Marla needed 90 minutes to win that first set, saving a set point serving at 4-5. 

Marla held then broke, but could not serve out the set, with Lee, the 2024 boys 12s Easter Bowl finalist, saving a set point with an approach and volley. A double fault by Marla sent the match to a tiebreaker, and Lee had a 4-2 lead at the first changeover, but Marla won the last four points, with Lee's ground strokes landing wide on the final three.

Marla said once he took that grueling set, he was in control.

"I knew if I kept intensity in the second set, I could bring him away," said the 14-year-old from Mason Ohio. "I tried to be more aggressive, was serving bigger and I felt like after the real high intensity first set, he sort of lost a lot of confidence, so I took that advantage and started pounding the ball corner to corner and make him hit shots he does not want to hit."

Marla has split two matches with Chervenkov, although he has the advantage of having already won two gold balls, at the 2024 12s Nationals and the 2025 14s National Indoors.

Marla credits his coach Sam Shrivastava for those results, and they have been hitting at 5 each morning due to the three-hour time change.

"I wake up at 4 and hit with my coach at 5 because we both can't sleep," Marla said. "He's been coaching me for two years and it's been a life-changer for me. When I met him, we trained for six months, and then I won the 12s. Without him, I would never be in this position."

The 12s boys and girls singles finals are set for 8 a.m., with the 14s singles finals scheduled for 11 a.m.  The two matches on Stadium Court can be live streamed at the Easter Bowl YouTube channel.

The 12s and 14s doubles semifinal results are below, with the finals set for Thursday afternoon.

B12s Doubles Semifinal Results:

Miguel Valencia & Milan Nair d. Benedict Zhong & Pavel Abadzhev[7] 7-6(5), 5-7, 7-6(4)

Yifan Nie & Thomas Gamble[2] d. Devansh Patra & Isaac Milner[8] 6-3, 6-2

G12 Doubles Semifinal Results:

Ayenxavia Calugay & Grace Malholtra[3] d. Summer Yang & Lucy Jiang[1] 6-7(0), 7-5, 6-2

Alara Buyukuncu & Catherine Chan d. Lindy Zhao & Valetina Singh-Carvajal[2] 3-6, 6-3, 6-2

B14s Doubles Semifinal Results:

Evaan Mohan & Nathan Lee[8] d. James Borchard & Evan Fan[5] 6-4, 6-0

Wyatt Markham & Max D Smith[6] d. Jacques Chen & Tony Xu[2] 6-1, 6-1

G14s Doubles Semifinal Results:

Ava Chua & Gwyneth Britton[3] d. Victoria Park & Isabelle Nguyen 6-2, 6-0

Natalia Martinez & Ellington Reese[2] d. Anna Victoria Sandru & Emma Li[7] 6-4, 6-1

Several top 4 seeds in the 18s escaped upsets in Wednesday's second round, with No. 2 seed Omar Rhazali beating Connor Plunkett 6-3, 2-6, 10-4 and No. 3 seed Alyson Shannon getting by Reagan Levine 7-6(5), 5-7, 10-7 in a match that took more than three hours to complete. 

Not all seeds struggled, with 18s No. 1s Ellery Mendell and Alexander Suhanitski winning in straight sets, as did 16s No. 1 seeds Sylvana Jalbert and Eli Kaminski.

But the No. 2 seeds in the 16s were both knocked out, with Heidi Polasek beating Vanessa Kruse 7-6(6), 6-3 and Mikaeel Alibaig defeating Lennart Hammargren 6-2, 6-1.

Hammargren took a medical timeout for an ankle problem at the end of the first set, and although he had it taped and resumed play, his mobility was obviously reduced, a circumstance Alibaig had to ignore.

"When someone takes a medical timeout it's difficult to regroup," said the 16-year-old, who has been training at IMG for the past six months. "I really had to stay super focused and not let that distract me and I think I did that really well, won the next four games in a row, so I played really solid mentally."

Alibaig was born in Wisconsin, but has dual citizenship and competes for Pakistan in international events.

He has written a book about the two cultures and his life as a junior athlete, which can be found at his website: https://www.mikatensity.com/.

"For me, my life has been really challenging," Alibaig said. "A dual citizen, being Pakistani and an American, it's sometimes difficult dealing with other people when you're from two ethnicities. And three years ago, I got attacked really badly by a German Shepherd and for five months I couldn't walk, but getting through those challenges really inspired me to write the book about my whole life journey. Athletes have a difficult time--it looks like they're in the spotlight, it's very difficult--it's not just me, I'm sure a lot of other junior athletes too. So it's an inspiration book, an emotional book and a happy book at the same time."

In Thursday's third round, Alibaig will face unseeded Alexander Totoian, who beat No. 9 seed Antanas Daugis 6-2, 3-6, 10-8.

The second round of doubles tonight saw both the top two seeds in the girls 18s lose, with No. 1 seeds Alyson Shannon and Francie Pate falling to Kalista Papadopoulos and Abigail Haile 6-2, 3-6, 10-8 and No. 2 seeds Isabelle DeLuccia and Amy Lee losing to Chloe Zigliara and Sadira Ouyang 6-3, 6-4.

Wednesday's Top 8 seed report for 16s and 18s:

B16s:

1. Eli Kaminski

2. Lennart Hammargren (out rd 2)

3. Piotr Gradzki

4. Ethan Turunen (out rd 2)

5. Gadin Arun (out rd 2)

6. Ivan Rybak

7. Akshay Mirmira (out rd 1)

8. Rafael Pawar (out rd 1)

G16s:

1. Sylvana Jalbert

2. Vanessa Kruse (out rd 2)

3. Avita Beitler (out rd 2)

4. Shristi Selvan

5. Olivia Lin

6. Nikol Davletshina (out rd 1)

7. Anastasiya Muravia (out rd 1)

8. Molly Widlansky

B18s:

1. Alexander Suhanitski

2. Omar Rhazali

3. Jesse Yang

4. William Freshwater

5. Yashwin Krishnakumar (out rd 2)

6. Soren Swenson (out rd 1)

7. Noble Renfrow (out rd 1)

8. Michael Lorenzetti (out rd 2)

G18s:

1. Ellery Mendell

2. Calla McGill

3. Alyson Shannon

4. Alanna Ingalsbe

5. Lauren Nolan

6. Ava Beltran

7. Reiley Rhodes

8. Kylie Liu (out rd 2)

Third round matches will again feature match tiebreakers in lieu of a full third set, with temperatures again expected to approach 100 degrees Thursday.

At the USTA Pro Circuit M25 in Las Vegas, Michael Antonius continued his winning streak on the USTA Pro Circuit, with the Bakersfield M25 champion defeating Ilia Snitari, a sophomore at UNLV, 7-5, 6-3. Andy Johnson, the Tucson and San Diego J300 champion, defeated qualifier Aaron Bailey 6-2, 6-0 and will play top seed Tyler Zink(Georgia, Oklahoma State) in Thursday's second round. Tankishk Konduri earned his first ATP point, beating fellow wild card Gus Grumet 5-7, 6-2, 6-3; Ronit Karki defeated qualifier Yousseff Kadiri Hassni of Morocco 6-3, 2-6, 7-6(2) and Kaylan Bigun defeated qualifier Zach Stephens of Great Britain 7-5, 6-1.