Multiple Players Going For First USTA National Titles Sunday On the Final Day of the FILA Easter Bowl

Junior tennis players would be wise to note the advice offered up by Boys’ 18s singles finalist Nikolas Stoot following his straight-set semifinals win on Saturday at the 57^th annual FILA Easter Bowl taking place at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden.

After winning the first set, 6-4, over Cupertino’s Winston Lee, Stoot found himself down 5-2 in the second and was at a loss of how to turn things around. But suddenly he came to a realization – when all else fails, Stoot said, do what the GOAT would do.

“I was down 5-2 and he was about to serve it out and I kind of just thought, ‘What would Djoker do?’,” Stoot said referencing all-time great Novak Djokovic. “And then I calmed down…I played smarter and started going for high-percentage shots and it started to work.”

The result was a 6-4, 7-6 (2) win to propel Stoot into his first USTA National Level 1 final and a guaranteed gold or silver ball.

Stoot’s opponent will be the unseeded 15-year-old Tyler Lee of Tustin, Calif., who for the fourth time in five matches was extended to three sets, in the semis against the unseeded Cooper Han from Los Altos, Calif., ultimately prevailing, 6-3, 5-7, 6-1.

After the match Lee was asked how he spends his 10-minute break after splitting sets, since he’s so used to doing it this week. “I kind of use the restroom break to totally reset and I want to come out a totally different person,” Lee said. “I think getting off the court and then going back on just refreshes my mind.”

Lee will play his third lefty in five matches against Stoot. In the double semis player later in the day, Lee and partner Brayden Tallakson advanced to the final where they will meet another SoCal player in San Diego’s William Kleege and William McEwan from Austin, Texas. Lee will try and add to his collection of three USTA National Gold balls.

Stoot, 17 and coached by Robert Gomez in Coral Gables, Fla., got a last-minute wild card into the ITF J300 FILA event in Indian Wells just two weeks ago. After his loss, he headed home because he did not enter San Diego before making the cross-country trip back to the Coachella Valley this week. “I had a shoulder injury and almost didn’t come back this week,” he said. “My dad said, ‘You’re not going,’ but we decided to, and we’re glad we did.”

Marcel Latak from Darien, Ill., is looking to become the second Latak to add his name to the Easter Bowl winner’s list when he faces No. 8 Tristan Stratton from Forest Hills, N.Y., in the Boys’ 16s singles final.

Latak dominated Keshav Muthuvel of Pleasanton, Calif., 6-1, 6-1, and will try and repeat something his older sister Thea Latak was able to do back in 2019 when she won the Easter Bowl 12s.

“It’s a full-circle moment,” said Marcel, watched by Thea and his parents. “I was here [when she won] and I was like 9 or 10. I was so nervous and now it’s her turn, so it’s a full-circle moment for sure.”

Latak, 16, has never faced his finals opponent Stratton, and both players have achieved career-highs this week. Latak said he’s been to three USTA National Level 1 quarterfinals, and Stratton said he’s been to seven with both players never reaching the final four. Until this week. It will be the first meeting between the two players.

The 15-year-old Stratton, who trains at the John McEnroe Academy in New York City, needed three sets to beat fellow New Yorker and No. 2 seed Alexander Suhanitski from New Rochelle, 5-7, 6-4, 6-4.

Just like Lee, Stratton also was extended to three sets four times this week. “I talked to my coach after we split and he was watching the live stream,” Stratton said. “He said just keep going to his backhand.”

In the Girls’ 18s, last year’s Easter Bowl 16s singles and doubles champion Bella Payne from Bradenton, Fla., kept her desert winning streak alive advancing to Sunday’s final in both singles and doubles.

In singles, the Georgia-bound and unseeded Payne avenged a loss to Kennedy Drenser-Hagmann (Bloomfield Hills, Mich.) just a few weeks ago in Las Vegas to advance, 6-1, 6-2. Later in the doubles, Payne paired with future Bulldog teammate Emily Deming to make the doubles final following her 20^th straight Easter Bowl win.

It’s obvious Payne loves playing in the Coachella Valley, and she admitted as much on Friday. But the feeling is not mutal for her finals’ opponent No. 9 seed Nadia Valdez from San Antonio, Texas.

“I actually don’t like playing here,” Valdez, 15, said candidly after her 6-3, 6-2 win over Nicole Weng of South Pasadena. “The courts are so slow and I’m used to playing on fast courts. I love California, but I don’t like this place because I did so bad here last year. But If I win it, I’ll love it.”

Valdez, yet another player competing in the finals who has yet to win a USTA National gold, silver or bronze ball, had lost her three previous matches against Weng.

Valdez’s father Adrian owns a tennis academy the San Antonio Tennis Academy, but it was Nadia’s mother that was provided her inspiration here all week. “She knows nothing about tennis,” said Valdez, who beat Payne in three sets last month in a PTT event in Atlanta. “All she does is cheer me on. I call my dad if I split sets.”

In the Girls’ 16s finals, Carolina Castro from Stevensville, Md., will take on Armira Kockinis of La Habra Heights, Calif. The match will be the first of the day streamed live on the Easter Bowl YouTube channel at 10 a.m., and will be followed by the Boys’ 18s singles final.

Castro, 16, trains at the Junior Tennis Champions Center and is a member of Puerto Rico’s Billie Jean King Cup Junior (16-and-under) squad. After beating Boca Raton’s Ciara Harding, 6-4, 6-3, she said she is looking forward to representing her country once again next month in Montreal, Canada, in a BJK Cup qualifier.

Castro and Kockinis have never faced each other, but are good friends and have warmed up together this week before their matches.

“It should be a good match,” Castro said. “She’s a good player and hits heavy.”

Kockinis took out No. 3 Carlota Moreno of Knoxville, Tenn., 6-4, 6-2, after overcoming some nerves and falling behind quickly, 0-3, love-40. “I just started really slow but figured I’ve come so far and I didn’t want to end there,” Kockinis said. “If I go out it’s not going to be because of nerves, it’s that she’s better than me. So I was just like, ‘Hey, we’re going to just play.’ ”

The 15-year-old Kockinis won the USTA Gold ball at National Hardcourts in the 14s and trains at Tier-1 Performance in Fountain Valley, the same place where American men’s players Alex Michelsen and Learner Tien train. “I’m able to look up to them and I want to be like them one day,” she said. “What they’ve done is obviously pretty cool.”

She concluded: “I’m happy to have this chance and play Carolina and it’s always cool to play a friend, so I’m pumped. Let’s do this!”

Be sure to catch all the action Sunday morning on the Easter Bowl YouTube channel with RadioTennis.com’s Ken Thomas on the call.