The last of my four recaps of March's major junior events in Southern California is up today at the Tennis Recruiting Network, tracking the 16s and 18s divisions at the FILA Easter Bowl. If you didn't have time to read my daily posts, I think you'll find most of the pertinent information from these events in the wrap-ups. The 12s and 14s Easter Bowl article was posted Wednesday, and can be found here. My San Diego ITF J300 recap is also still available without a TRN membership, but won't be for much longer.
Monika Ekstrand, who turns 18 next month, has played only ITF women's and USTA Pro Circuit events this year, and her success has been limited to a semifinal appearance at a W15 in Spain as a qualifier. Until this week's USTA Pro Circuit W35 in Mississippi, that is. Ekstrand defeated top seed Cadence Brace(LSU) of Canada in the first round, fellow wild card Alexis Nguyen in the second round and today beat No. 6 seed Mayu Crossley of Japan 6-4, 7-5.
Ekstrand will face No. 7 seed Alicia Herrero Linana(Baylor) of Spain, who beat unseeded Mary Lewis(Arizona, Michigan State) 6-1, 6-0 in today's quarterfinals.
In the bottom half, No. 3 seed Lea Ma(Georgia) will play No. 2 seed Ana Sofia Sanchez of Mexico after Ma ended the run of lucky loser Salma Ewing(USC, Texas A&M) 6-2, 6-0 and Sanchez beat unseeded Katarina Jokic(Georgia) of Serbia 6-3, 6-2.
For the first time since 1991, eight American men made the quarterfinals of the same ATP tournament: the 250 U.S. Men's Clay Court Championships in Houston. Three of the quarterfinals were played today, before the rain set in, with top seed Tommy Paul, qualifier Jenson Brooksby(Baylor) and No. 4 seed Brandon Nakashima(Virginia) reaching the semifinals. No. 2 seed Frances Tiafoe and No. 5 seed Alex Michelsen will decide the fourth semifinalist, if the weather clears yet tonight.
Paul defeated qualifier Colton Smith, the University of Arizona senior, 6-1, 7-6(1), after Brooksby had gotten past Aleks Kovacevic 2-6, 6-3, 6-4. Smith got off to a terrible start, trailing 4-0 in the first set, but played much better in the second set, pushing Paul all the way to a tiebreaker. But Smith could not get a lead, failing to capitalize on a 0-40 lead with Paul serving at 3-3 in the second, and Paul took control from the outset of the tiebreaker. Nakashima defeated Chris Eubanks(Georgia Tech) 6-4, 6-4 and will play the winner of the Tiafoe - Michelsen match.
The semifinals at the WTA 500 in Charleston South Carolina will feature three Americans, with No. 9 seed Ekaterina Alexandrova of Russia the sole international player in the final four. Top seed Jessica Pegula defeated No. 7 seed and defending champion Danielle Collins(Virginia) 1-6, 6-3, 6-0; unseeded Sofia Kenin beat No. 14 seed Anna Kalinskaya of Russia 6-4, 6-3 and No. 8 seed Amanda Anisimova took out hometown favorite Emma Navarro(Virginia), the No. 4 seed, 7-5, 7-6(1). Pegula plays Alexandrova and Kenin faces Anisimova Saturday.
The top-ranked University of Georgia women were pushed to the limit Friday night in Athens before coming away with a 4-3 win over No. 13 Vanderbilt that took three and a half hours to complete.
Georgia took the doubles point with a 7-5 victory at No. 1, after Vanderbilt won 6-1 at line 2 and Georgia won 6-1 at line 3.
That proved to be the difference in the match, although many twists and turns were navigated before Georgia won three singles matches.
The teams split first sets in singles, but only two players who won their first set won the match, with Bridget Stammel of Vanderbilt pulling the Commodores even at 1 with a 6-3, 6-3 win over Mel Reasco at line 3, and Aysegul Mert putting Georgia back out in front with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Sophia Webster at line 4.
Georgia veterans Dasha Vidmanova and Anastasiia Lopata had both dropped their first sets at lines 1 and 2, while Vanderbilt's Trinetra Vijayakumar and Amy Stevens had lost their first sets at lines 5 and 6. But all four forced third sets and won them, with Vijayakumar defeating Guillermina Grant 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 and Stevens beating Sofia Rojas 2-6, 6-4, 6-4. With Vanderbilt up 3-2, Vidmanova and Lopata were both up breaks in their third sets, but with no-ad, those can disappear in a hurry and Lopata, up 4-1 lost her serve at 4-2 to give Valeria Ray a chance to pull even. But Lopata broke and held to make it 3-all, just as Vidmanova was beginning her service game at 5-4 against Celia-Belle Mohr. Vidmanova went up 40-15, but Mohr cracked a backhand pass for a winner to make it 40-30,with a deciding point looming. But Vidmanova made her first serve and Mohr made an unforced error, setting off a celebration, with Georgia extending their SEC record this season to 12-0.
Three weeks ago, the ITF J300 FILA International Championships at Indian Wells were drawing to close, with Julieta Pareja and Jagger Leach on their way to the titles. With Pareja into Friday's quarterfinals at the WTA 250 in Colombia, it occurred to me that the videos of her from the final would be especially timely, so I processed both the boys and girls videos from the finals today.
The quarterfinals of the women's USTA Pro Circuit W35 in Jackson Mississippi are set, with two top college recruits advancing to face each other for a place in the semifinals.
Seventeen-year-old Monika Ekstrand, who has committed to Stanford, had no letdown after beating top seed Cadence Brace(LSU) of Canada yesterday, securing a 6-2, 6-4 win over wild card Alexis Nguyen, Pareja's opponent in the above video.
Eighteen-year-old Mayu Crossley of Japan, who has committed to UCLA, has now made four quarterfinals at the W35 level and above after the No. 6 seed beat Alexis Blokhina(Stanford) 6-1, 6-3. Ekstrand reached her first ITF women's World Tennis Tour quarterfinal in February at a W15 in Mallorca.
The ATP Challenger swing on the green clay begins next week in Sarasota Florida, the first of three 75s in the South. This article from Yahoo Sports vis the Sarasota Herald-Tribune has the details on the move from its location the past three years, Payne Park, to Sarasota Sports Club, where a 10-year agreement has been signed. The most significant news is that the new facility does not have ATP-quality lights, so all matches will be played during the day. According to this entry update from dartsrankings.com, Wake Forest freshman Charlie Robertson will be using one of his ITF Junior Accelerator entries to compete in the main draw.
With Division I college tennis entering its final few weeks of regular season competition, I've run across two articles about women's coaches. Georgia's Drake Bernstein, who is in his second year after the retirement of Jeff Wallace, has had a dream start as head coach, with two NCAA individual titles (2024 spring doubles, 2024 fall singles), an appearance in the 2024 team final, an ITA Team Indoor title in February, and, since then, the top ranking in country. The Red & Black tracks Bernstein's Georgia roots back to his years playing for the Bulldogs and his tenure as the associate head coach under Wallace here.
Pepperdine's Tassilo Schmid has had a dramatically different path to his position. An assistant for the men's team for seven years, Schmid was named interim head coach for the women when Pere Nilsson left last fall for the University of Florida's women's head coaching job. Graphic provides this review of Schmid's coaching career and a look at his coaching philosophy.
I'll have a lot more content coming from last month's three weeks covering major junior events in Southern California, with videos from all finals at the ITF J300 Indian Wells, ITF J300 San Diego and FILA Easter Bowl, as well as a couple of photo galleries for Tennis Recruiting Network. That will be later this month, once I've completed my recaps from the Easter Bowl and the March Aces column for Tennis Recruiting Network. The first recap was published today, with my summary of the 12s and 14s Easter Bowl Championships. Congratulations to all those competing on the final day, who handled a difficult day with few complaints and impressive competitive performances.
The USTA began a search for a new position it created last fall, when General Manager of Player Development Martin Blackman left after 10 years heading Player Development. That new position, General Manager of USA Tennis, was filled today, with long-time USTA administrator Tracy Davies named to "oversee an expanded high performance division that joins Player Development, Pro Circuit, Collegiate, Junior Competition, and International Team Events into a single cohesive department."
I don't know Davies, but am optimistic that her USTA experience and her background as a former collegiate player will assist in what is uncharted territory for the organization in bringing all the various entities under one person's direction.
Blackman discussed with me back in January what the new USA Tennis General Manager's role might be, which can be found at this TRN article. Let's hope you all see Davies in your sections this summer.
The complete release, with comments from Davies, USTA CEO Lew Sherr, USTA President and Board Chair Brian Vahaly and Billie Jean King Cup captain Lindsay Davenport can be found at usta.com.
Teenagers had great success today at the women's USTA Pro Circuit W35 in Jackson Mississippi, with Stanford recruit Monika Ekstrand, a 17-year-old wild card, taking out top seed Cadence Brace of Canada, a 20-year-old LSU freshman, 6-3, 5-7, 6-3 in first round action.
Ekstrand will play wild card Alexis Nguyen, last month's ITF J300 Indian Wells finalist, who beat qualifier Kolie Allen(Ohio State) 6-1, 6-3.
Fifteen-year-old qualifier Kristina Liutova of Russia defeated No. 5 seed Martina Okalova(Tulsa) of Slovakia 6-1, 6-3 and will face 2019 NCAA singles finalist Katarina Jokic(Georgia) of Serbia.
No. 8 Tori Osuigwe, a North Carolina State signee, defeated fellow 18-year-old Mia Yamakita, a qualifier, 5-7, 6-4, 6-2 to advance against lucky loser Salma Ewing(USC, Texas A&M), who beat qualifier Marcella Cruz(Vanderbilt, Wake Forest) 6-4, 6-1.
University of Arizona senior Colton Smith has played a grand total of two ATP events, and he has already reached his first quarterfinal at the ATP 250 in Houston. Qualifier Smith, the 22-year-old from Washington, defeated wild card Ethan Quinn(Georgia) 6-3, 6-4, on a surface he never plays on in college and is playing on for the first time this week in the pros.
Now up to 166 in the live rankings, Smith is banking valuable points in the USTA's Roland Garros Wild Card Challenge; he will face the winner of tonight's match between top seed Tommy Paul and wild card Cristian Garin of Chile in the quarterfinals.
Another qualifier who got in via a wild card and is now through to the quarterfinals is 16-year-old Californian Julieta Pareja at the WTA 250 in Colombia. There's no question she had a dream draw, facing a local wild card in the first round and a lucky loser in the second, but she's seized the opportunity she was handed. The ITF J300 Indian Wells champion defeated Patricia Tig of Romania 6-3, 7-6(3) and won't face a seed in the quarterfinals. Her opponent will be the winner of tonight's match between Leolia Jeanjean(Baylor, Arkansas, Lynn) and Selena Janicijevic, both of France.
After four weeks with nothing on the USTA women's Pro Circuit calendar, competition resumes this week on green clay at the W35 in Jackson Mississippi, the first week of the USTA's Roland Garros Wild Card Challenge. Qualifying concluded today, with two juniors, Vanderbilt recruit Mia Yamakita and 15-year-old Kristina Liutova of Russia, advancing to the main draw.
Yamakita defeated No. 7 seed Dilana Rsovac of Australia 6-0, 6-2 in the final round of qualifying, while No. 9 seed Liutova beat former USC All-American Salma Ewing, the No. 5 seed, 6-0, 7-5 to qualify. Other Americans reaching the main draw are Kolie Allen(Ohio State) and Marcella Cruz(Vanderbilt, Wake Forest).
The top seed in the main draw is LSU freshman Cadence Brace of Canada, with Ana Sofia Sanchez of Mexico the No. 2 seed. Wild cards were awarded to ITF J300 Indian Wells finalist Alexis Nguyen, Stanford recruit Monika Ekstrand, Mississippi high school sophomore Briley Rhoden and University of Texas recruit Elizabeth Ionescu. Rhoden lost her first round match today; the other three play their opening matches Wednesday, with Ekstrand drawing Brace.
Julieta Pareja and Iva Jovic, both of whom have won ITF Junior Billie Jean King Cup titles in the past two years, are playing the WTA 250 in Bogota Colombia this week and both have won their opening matches. The 16-year-old Pareja, who won the ITF J300 in Indian Wells last month then got through the qualifying as a wild card in Bogota, won her first WTA main draw match tonight, beating Colombian wild card Maria Jose Sanchez Uribe 6-1, 6-1. She will play lucky loser Patricia Tig of Romania next, after the 30-year-old Tig defeated No. 4 seed Emiliana Arango of Colombia 6-3, 6-3.
The 17-year-old Jovic, who has played the women's US Open, Australian Open and BNP Paribas Open in the past seven months, winning a round in all three, made her debut below the 1000 level today, beating No. 3 seed Alycia Parks 6-1, 6-4. These results will count toward the Roland Garros Wild Card Challenge, as do any events on clay at the W35 level and above. Jovic won last fall's Australian Open Wild Card Challenge.
At the ATP 250 in Houston, Arizona senior Colton Smith qualified for the main draw after receiving a wild card and today earned his second ATP main draw victory, beating James Duckworth of Australia 6-2, 6-2. Smith will face 2023 NCAA champion Ethan Quinn(Georgia), a wild card, who beat No. 6 seed Jordan Thompson of Australia 4-6, 6-4, 6-3. It's Quinn's first ATP Top 40 win.
I didn't have time to post last week's ITA Division I Team rankings, but there haven't been many changes the past several weeks, with the Georgia women, with just one loss this season, and the Wake Forest men, who are undefeated, continuing at No. 1. The top spots in singles and doubles have also been unchanged for several weeks. Below are the rankings released today; click on the headings to go to the full ITA rankings.
With the FILA Easter Bowl reaching its always frantic conclusion over the weekend, I didn't have time to post any updates on other tournaments of interest, so before I finally get a full night's rest after 23 days on the road, this will be a short review of results I noticed. (I'm sure I missed a lot since last Thursday).
Wake Forest graduate transfer Stefan Dostanic, who played No. 1 for USC as an undergraduate, won his second M25 US Pro Circuit title yesterday in Calabasas California. The 23-year-old from Irvine, seeded No. 7, defeated No. 8 seed Andres Martin(Georgia Tech) 2-6, 6-4, 6-3 in Sunday's final after taking out 17-year-old Darwin Blanch 6-2, 6-3 in Saturday's semifinals. Dostanic is currently at a career-high 430 in the ATP live rankings. Top seeds Govind Nanda(UCLA) and Canada's Benjamin Sigouin(UNC) won the doubles title, beating brothers Jayson and Michael Blando(Utah), a wild card entry, 2-6, 7-6(4), 10-1 in the final. Nanda has two Pro doubles title now; Sigouin, who won the doubles title in Calabasas last year, has nine, including two ATP Challenger titles last year.
It was a quiet week on the ITF Junior Circuit, with only six tournaments in total; the highest grade of the six was a J100 in Spain. Americans picked up doubles titles at the J30 in Mexico, with David Bvunzawabaya and Diego Custodio Wagner taking the boys title, their first on the ITF Junior Circuit, and Sophia Filip partnering with Australian Amy Gray for the girls title. Filip and Gray won the unseeded final, beating the Mexican team of
Azul Lopez Vazquez and Natalia Perez 6-3, 6-4 in the final for Filip's first ITF Junior Circuit title. Custodio Wagner and Bvunzawabaya won their unseeded final by defeating Ander Gomez Salas Villegas and Rodrigo Maya 7-6(3), 6-2
4/2/25 CORRECTION:
Apparently there was an error in the March 31st junior rankings posted by the ITF Monday. As of today, Mees Rottgering of the Netherlands and Emerson Jones of Australia are listed No. 1 in the rankings. Maybe it was an early April Fool's joke by the ITF.
With the dearth of major ITF Junior Circuit events last week it's surprising that today marks the debut of not one, but two, new ITF No. 1 juniors.
Australian Open boys champion Henry Bernet of Switzerland, hasn't played since winning that title, but the 18-year-old has ascended to the top spot, with Mees Rottgering of the Netherlands falling to No. 6. Jagger Leach is now up to a career-high of No. 2.
Seventeen-year-old Wakana Sonobe of Japan is the new girls No. 1, with the Australian Open girls champion replacing Emerson Jones of Australia, who fell to No. 3. Like Leach, who won the Indian Wells ITF J300 his month, San Diego ITF J300 champion Kristina Penickova is up to a career-high ranking of No. 2.
Speaking of the ITF J300 in Indian Wells, the girls champion two weeks ago was Julieta Pareja, who received a wild card into qualifying at the WTA 250 in Bogota Colombia. Pareja, whose parents are from Colombia, won two matches to qualify, with the 16-year-old from Southern California drawing wild card Maria Jose Sanchez Uribe of Colombia in the first round. Seventeen-year-old Iva Jovic, who received entry based on her WTA ranking, currently 150, will play No. 3 seed Alycia Parks tonight if the weather improves.
On the ATP Challenger Circuit, Emilio Nava won his second Challenger 75 title in South America in as many weeks, following his win in Paraguay with another in Chile yesterday. The 23-year-old Southern Californian, seeded eighth, defeated qualifier Nicolas Kicker of Argentina 6-1, 7-6(3) and has risen to 164 in the ATP rankings.
2016 Kalamazoo 18s finalist Vasil Kirkov and partner Matias Soto(Baylor) of Chile won the doubles title, with the top seeds winning their third Challenger title of the year with a 6-2, 6-4 victory over No. 3 seeds Seita Watanabe and Takeru Yuzuki of Japan.
For Bella Payne everything felt familiar, for Nikolas Stoot the experience was a new one, but the two unseeded 17-year-old left-handers from Florida each came away with FILA Easter Bowl titles Sunday afternoon as a week of heat, dust and wind came at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden to a close.
Payne, the 2024 16s champion, has not lost a set in her 12 victories at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden, but the routine wins she was posting en route all week came to end in the first few games of her championship match with No. 9 seed Nadia Valdez.
But trailing 4-1, the desert magic kicked in for Payne.
"I think she came out playing really good tennis and there was not much I could do," said Payne, who was playing her fifth consecutive week, with the first week of that stretch ending with a three-set loss to Valdez in a UTR Pro Tennis Tour event in Atlanta. "I was just staying in the match, trying not to give her any free balls because she definitely wasn't giving me any. Whenever I would win a point, I would have to hit a winner, and it was tough, but I just kept going until I finally got some errors from her."
Down 0-30 serving at 5-all, Payne won the next four points and broke, as Valdez began to struggle with her game.
At 3-all in the second set, Payne lost track of the score and thought she had been broken, and that mistake proved the boost she needed, taking the final three games.
"I thought it was 15-40 and it was 30-all," said Payne, who has verbally committed to Georgia for 2026. "I lost that point and I was walking and she called 30-40, and I said ok. Winning that next point and getting that game was really what gave me the momentum to win the match."
Valdez was going up against a confident player who had known nothing but success at the Easter Bowl the past two years, and playing in her first USTA Level 1 final, her inexperience showed.
"I played horrible," said the 15-year-old from San Antonio, who took some time to collect herself before posing for the post-match photographs. "I was going for the right shots but I just wasn't executing it, it just wasn't going in. I didn't think I would get this far, so I'm proud of myself either way. It's ok, I've just got to move on."
Payne picked up three wins this week after losses to those opponents during this extending road trip, a turnaround she attributed to her attitude.
"It feels really good to avenge all those matches," said Payne, who joins Emma Navarro as a champion in both 16s and 18s. "I was just really mentally there here I think. After Winter Nats in January I took a mental break because my emotions were all over the place and was super frustrated with my tennis. Then starting with Atlanta I played a bunch of tournaments in a row and they weren't going great, so I was thinking of not playing this, but I'm really glad I got this result."
Stoot was also considering skipping the Easter Bowl, after returning to his home in Miami from the Indian Wells ITF J300, where he won two rounds as a wild card. With a shoulder injury casting doubt on his effectiveness, he took a chance, and with a 6-4, 6-2 win over Tyler Lee, Stoot earned his first USTA ball as the Easter Bowl champion.
"Dad was like you're not playing, and I'm like, let's try it," Stoot said. "I don't know, it's crazy. I definitely felt my level rising throughout every one."
The only set Stoot lost this week was the first set in the second round to No. 8 seed Francisco Salmain, a match that was played over two days due to the stoppage for dangerous air quality due to blowing dust.
"That feels like a California thing," said Stoot, who won that match 2-6, 7-6(7), 6-4 and managed to close out Lee in straight sets and avoid another particle-filled windstorm that appeared during the late afternoon.
Stoot got off to a quick start but Lee came back from 0-2 down, only to play a poor game serving at 4-5, which gave Stoot the set. The second set was competitive, but Stoot was holding serve easily, while Lee was regularly playing deuce games on his serve.
"I felt like I could go for more on my return game," said Stoot, who has verbally committed to LSU for 2026. "It's a good feeling, I feel more relaxed, more loose."
Lee acknowledged that Stoot's serve was a problem for him, as was Stoot's defense, which wore him down after a week of long singles and doubles matches.
"Every time I would step in he made me feel like I had to go for more than I actually had to," said the 15-year-old from Southern California, who won four three-set matches to reach his first Level 1 singles final, including a quarterfinal victory over top seed Shaan Patel "And maybe I shouldn't split sets with everyone on the way to the finals."
Like Stoot, 16s champion Marcel Latak was playing in his first USTA Level 1 final, but unlike Stoot, the No. 9 seed had to win his gold ball the hard way, coming from a set down to defeat No. 8 seed Tristan Stratton 5-7, 6-1, 6-1.
Up 3-1 in the opening set, Latak lost four straight games, but Stratton was unable to serve out the set at 5-3. But with Latak serving at 5-6, a five-deuce game went Stratton's way to give him the lead.
Latak took control quickly in the second set, and the 10-minute break couldn't stall his momentum, although Latak had to save a break point serving at 1-1 in the third.
"I told myself on that break point that I just needed to have a big serve there," said the 16-year-old from Chicago. "And once I had that big serve, I won a couple of points in a row, and then the momentum was all on my side, and he was struggling to throw me off, because I was right there in that zone."
"He raised his level a lot in the second and third," said the 15-year-old from New York. "I had a break point in the third, but he stepped it up again. He played really well. His serve got a lot better in the second and third set, he was placing it well. All the shots he was missing in the first, he made in the second and third."
Latak spoke with his father during the 10-minute break between the second and third sets, and he took the advice to heart.
"He told me not to rush myself, because I'll have my chances during the point, if I keep building, I'll get that shorter ball and then I can go for it," Latak said. "If I lost two points, regroup, put a couple of balls in the court, and then go for another one."
Latak also had advice from his sister Thea, who won the Easter Bowl 12s title in 2019.
"It's not like it was bound to happen, but it feels like a full-circle moment," said Latak, who will play two of the ITFs in Florida in May. "I watched her win her match (7-6(3), 6-3 over Daniela Borruel) and mine was a really tight one today too. She was there basically the whole time too."
No. 9 seed Armina Kockinis pointed to one shot that was key in claiming her second gold ball, with the 2024 Hard Courts 14s champion counting on her serve to get her out of tough spots, as it did in her 6-3, 6-0 win over No. 7 seed Carolina Castro in the final.
"I've been working on my serve a lot and that's what got me through this whole tournament," said the 15-year-old from Southern California, who had two aces in the second game of the match to consolidate the break she got to open the match.
But it was her service game at 4-3 in the first that turned the tide permanently in her favor.
Kockinis needed seven deuces to get out of it, saving two break points, then breaking Castro quickly in the next game to take the set.
"I knew the importance of that game, I was up 30-0, so I knew I had to get that game, I didn't want it to be 4-all," Kockinis said. "I knew I needed to hold serve and thank god that's what I did."
Castro agreed that game was key, as she was starting to feel the effects of the lengthy three-set matches she had played in the second, third and quarterfinal rounds.
"I had a lot of opportunities that I just didn't take or couldn't take, because she played really, really well," said the 16-year-old from Maryland. "But she had the momentum the entire time and I just couldn't pick up rhythm, and I wasn't my best but I think I played a really good tournament considering all the hours I was on court."
In the doubles finals, one Easter Bowl streak ended but another continued, with Bella Payne suffering her first loss in two years at Indian Wells in the girls doubles final. Payne, who won the 16s doubles title with Ava Rodriguez, lost in the final with Emily Deming in the 18s, with Kenzie Nguyen and Amy Lee earning the 6-3, 6-4 victory in the late afternoon final.
Nguyen and Lee, playing together for the second time after reaching the semifinals at a J200 in the Dominican Republic, broke Payne at 4-all in the second set, but went down 30-40 in the game. Nguyen, serving in that game, was visibly frustrated, but Lee reassured her and they won the next two points to take the title.
"Amy is very caring and very sweet," said Nguyen, a 17-year-old from Southern California. "I'm a little more explosive on court, you could say. So when she comes to calm me down, she always tells me, it's ok, next one, next one, reminds me that we're still in it."
Lee wasn't expecting an Easter Bowl title, but was happy to earn her second gold ball.
"We played a lot better than we thought," said the 17-year-old Southern Californian.
The streak extended was that of Tyler Lee and Brayden Tallakson, who won the 16s doubles title in 2024 and took home the 18s title Sunday evening, in a final, like the girls, that was between unseeded teams.
William Kleege, who did not make the singles draw and William McEwan, who was the eighth alternate but did get into the draw, caught fire in the doubles, but fell just a few points short of a Cinderella title, with Lee and Tallakson taking a 7-6(5), 1-6, 6-4 decision.
"I've been playing with a different partner for the past two months," said Lee, who now has four gold balls in doubles and last week reached the semifinals of the ITF J300 in San Diego with Justin Riley Anson. "He found another partner, so we thought, why not run it back?"
"I was a backup for him," said Tallakson, a 17-year-old, also from Southern California. Lee disagreed. "I would not have won this without him."
After seeing a 4-2 lead in the third set disappear after dropping two straight deciding points, Lee and Tallakson went up 5-4, then earned 15-40 on Kleege's serve. Those two opportunities went by the wayside, but a good Lee return and a putaway by Tallakson put their Easter Bowl winning streak at 10.
Replays of the girls 16s and boys 18s singles finals and the girls 16s and boys 18s doubles finals can be found at the Easter Bowl YouTube Channel.
