Qualifying Complete at Adidas Easter Bowl ITF Grade B1 in San Diego; Semifinals Monday in 12s and 14s Divisions; Bowers Wins ITF Grade 5 Title in Cancun

©Colette Lewis 2021 

San Diego CA--

Qualifying for the Easter Bowl ITF Grade B1 concluded Sunday at the Barnes Tennis Center, while elsewhere on the grounds the 12s and 14s age divisions whittled their competition down to the final four.

After one round of qualifying on Saturday, two rounds were played on Sunday, with five of the matches in the final round going to a match tiebreaker. One of those featured Bryce Nakashima, the younger brother of 2017 Easter Bowl 16s champion and current ATP Top 150 player Brandon Nakashima.  Bryce lost in the final round of qualifying in last week's ITF Grade 1, but this week he made the main draw, defeating Mitchell Deames 7-5, 1-6, 10-4.

Except for No. 2 seed Hugo Hashimoto, the other five boys qualifiers were unseeded: Nakashima, Alexander Visser, William Thompson, Nathan Cox and Alexander Chang. Cox, who won the doubles with Sebastian Gorzny at the Grade 1 IOSC Friday, is now assured of an opportunity to compete in the doubles again this week.

Yannick Rahman, the No. 13 seed, withdrew at the last minute, so lucky loser Eugenio Gonzales Fitzmaurice will take Rahman's place in the draw and receive his bye.

After top boys seed Juncheng Shang had pulled out of the IOSC last week to compete in the Miami Open qualifying, there was speculation that he might not play Easter Bowl either, but he did make the trip and will be ready to go on Wednesday. Madison Sieg, who did not play the Grade 1 IOSC last week, is the top girls seed, with IOSC champion Alexandra Yepifanova seeded No. 2.

The six girls to qualify include three seeds: No. 11 Julia Fliegner, No. 10 seed Salma Farhat and No. 12 seed Liv Hovde. Also advancing to the main draw with two wins Sunday were Tomi Main, Emma Sun and Bridget Stammel.

The qualifiers have Monday off, while the seeded players are not scheduled for singles until Wednesday. Doubles are expected to begin on Tuesday.  

While the Easter Bowl's ITF schedule features only 20 first round singles matches Monday, and the 16s don't begin until Tuesday, the 12s and 14s will decide their finalists on Monday after a busy afternoon of quarterfinal action Sunday.

Only one of Monday's eight semifinals will feature an expected matchup, with top seed in the boys 14s, Cooper Woestendick taking on No. 4 seed A Filer. Woestendick defeated No. 6 seed ShriKeshav Murugesan 6-4, 6-2 and Filer beat unseeded Darwin Blanch 7-6(5), 6-2.  The bottom half semifinal has unseeded Jimin Jung playing unseeded Ian Bracks, after Jung defeated No. 7 seed Mario Garcia 4-6, 7-5, 6-1 and Bracks advanced over Max Exsted, who retired trailing 7-6(4) 2-0. 

In the girls 14s, Iva Jovic and Tianmei Wang, both unseeded, will face off after they defeated seeds in the quarterfinals. Jovic beat No. 9 seed Claire An 6-4, 6-3 and Wang came from behind to defeat No. 4 seed Maya Iyengar 1-6, 6-3, 6-2.  No. 3 seed Christasha McNeil defeated Rachel Lee 6-1, 7-5 to set up a semifinal with No. 9 seed Elena Zhao, who beat Capucine Jauffret, also a No. 9 seed, 6-4, 6-4.

All four semifinalists in the boys 12s are seeded, with No. 4 Sebastian Bielen leading the way. Bielen defeated No. 5 seed jack Secord 6-4, 6-4 and will take on No. 7 seed Jack Kennedy, who beat 10-year-old Teodor Davidov 4-6, 6-3, 10-6. Davidov is ambidextous, playing only forehands and alternating between right-handed and left-handed serves. A short clip of Davidov in his match with Kennedy today is below.  In the top half, two No. 9 seeds will meet: David Clarke beat Nayneet Raghuram 5-7, 6-3, 10-8 and Kimi Basamakov cruised past Michael Antonius 6-3, 6-1.

The girls 12s will feature unseeded Kori Montoya against No. 4 seed Shannon Lam. Montoya took a 15-13 tiebreaker from Ashley Liang to advance, while Lam beat No. 9 seed Nicole Okhtenberg 6-0, 6-2. Two No. 9 seeds moved on in the bottom half, with Meghan Rowley beating No. 3 seed Isabelle DeLuccia 6-4, 6-3 and Thea Frodin downed No. 9 seed Clara Harding 6-3, 7-5.

The 12s semifinals are scheduled for 10 a.m. Monday, with the 14s semifinals at noon.

While many of the top US juniors were in San Diego last week, 15-year-old Ashton Bowers won her first ITF Junior Circuit singles title at the Grade 5 in Cancun Mexico. The No. 3 seed won an all-US championship match, beating Lizanne Boyer 3-6, 6-4, 6-1. Kurt Miller made his second straight final in Cancun, falling again this week when he retired to No. 8 seed Luis Alvarez Valdes of Mexico trailing 6-4, 2-3.