14s and 12s Champions In Singles and Doubles Crowned

There was no way for 13-year-old Daniela del Mastro to prepare for the Coachella Valley desert heat that topped out at 100 degrees this week during the 57^th annual FILA Easter Bowl taking place at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden.

You see, del Mastro is from Maple Grove, Minn., a suburb outside of Minneapolis, Minn., where she spends half the year hitting and training indoors because of the cold and snowy weather. “We play indoors from November to April, if we’re lucky,” said the No. 6-seeded del Mastro, after she captured the biggest win of her young career by winning the Girls’ 14s singles title beating No. 3 Allison Wang of San Jose, Calif., 7-6 (4), 6-4.

“This is my first tournament playing outdoors and the first few matches were tough to get used to just because I’m so used to indoors.”

Del Mastro’s USTA Gold ball was the third of her career as she previously won the 2023 USTA Winter Nationals and, appropriately, the USTA National Indoors. She was coached this week by former University of Nebraska player Toby Boyer.

Luckily for del Mastro, the temperature had cooled to a pleasant 82 degrees as the 14s and 12s division finished play following a Wednesday that was called off early because of poor air quality.

Both del Mastro and Boys’ 14s singles champion Arjun Krishnan from San Jose, Calif., started the day early resuming – and winning – their semifinal matches that started Wednesday and were unable to finish.

The No. 8 seeded Krishnan used his aggressive play and big serve to outlast top-seeded Rafael Pawar of Essex Fells, N.J., 7-6 (5), 6-4, to win the Boys’ 14s title.

Krishan is a freshman at the public Lynbrook High school and was coached all week by J.T. Gaviano. In his post-match interview with RadioTennis.com’s Ken Thomas, he was asked what was next for him schedule-wise. “Well, I’ve got school tomorrow,” he said, adding that he will age out of the 14s in June and has his sights set on the Boys’ 16s Nationals at Kalamazoo, Mich.

“I’m going to try and qualify at Kalamazoo,” Krishan said. “Kalamazoo becomes my priority from now on.”

In the 12s, the top seeds lived up to their seeding and captured Easter Bowl titles with No. 1 Lucy Dupere from Wake Forest, N.C., taking out No 5-seeded Kareena Cross from Los Angeles in a tight match, 7-5, 2-6, 6-3.

On the boys’ side it was No.1 James Borchard beating No. 3 Udham Singh of Sunnyvale, Calif., 7-5, 4-6, 6-4. “I was a little nervous at the start of the match,” said Borchard, just 11 years old. “I took my time and was patient and so happy I pulled through. The Easter Bowl is one of my favorite tournaments!”

Just three weeks ago at the BNP Paribas Open, Borchard was shocked to open his ipad and see American No. 1 Taylor Fritz send him a congratulatory shout out on Instagram that he had been accepted to play in the prestigious 12-and-under IMG Future Stars event to be held at the end of April in Athens, Greece.

Borchard pulled off the Easter Bowl double later in the day as he and partner Evan Fan, the No. 3 seeds, beat No. 5 Keita Iida and Mateo Vicens to win the 12s doubles title, 6-1, 7-5.

In the Boys’ 14s doubles final, unseeded Siddhant Dua and Indra Vergne beat No. 4 Karan Shanker and Trishiv Premanand, 6-3. 6-1, to win the Gold Ball.

In the Girls’ 12s doubles final, Gabrielle Alexa Villegas and Cross defeated the No. 3 seeds Nicole Blanco and Inie Toli, 6-4, 7-6 (9) and in the Girls’ 14 doubles final, No. 5 Madeline Cleary and Anya Arora beat No. 2 Olivia de Los Reyes and Emery Combs, 7-6 (2), 6-4.

It has not been a good thing to be seeded in the top eight this week in the Boys’ 18s as only top-seeded Shaan Patel (St. Louis, Mo.) has survived to the round of eight. There are two No. 9-16 seeds remaining in David Wu and Winston Wooin Lee and are joined by unseeded players Tyler Lee, Cooper Han, Aryan Badlani, Nikolas Stoot and Yashwin Krishnakumari in Friday’s quarterfinals.

In the Girls’ 18s, top-seeded Thara Gowda (Rochester Hills, Mich.) was upset by No. 9 Nadia Valdez (San Antonio, Texas) in one of the closest matches on the day, 6-7 (5), 7-6 (5), 6-4. No. 2 seeded JoAnna Kennedy (Englewood, Colo.) also advanced, and next has a meeting with last year’s 16s champion Bella Payne (Bradenton, Fla.). Other winners were Calla McGill, Nicole Weng, Blair Gill, Hi’Ilani Williams, and Kennedy Drenser-Hagmann.

It is interesting to note that Payne is trying to become the first Easter Bowl winner to capture both the 16s and the 18s since world No. 10 Emma Navarro won both titles in 2019 (18s) and 2017 (16s).

In the Boys’ 16s, top-seeded Safir Azam (Redmond, Wash.) moved onto the quarterfinals and will face No. 9 Keshav Muthuvel (Pleasanton, Calif.). Also winning were No. 2 Alexander Suhanitski (New Rochelle, N.Y.) and Marcel Latak, Rowan Qalbani, Tristan Stratton, Ilias Bouzoubaa and Lixing Jiang.

In the Girls’ 16s, Armira Kockinis (La Habra Heights, Calif.) pulled off the big upset taking out No. 2 Kohana Darroch (Walnut Creek, Calif.), 7-5, 6-4. The other quarterfinalists include Ciara Harding, Alanna Ingalsbe, Aarini Bhattacharya, Carolina Castro, Delaney Letzel, Carlota Moreno and Natalie Kha.