Semifinals Set For Boys’ And Girls’ 14s And 12s

Unseeded Nathan Lee of Tustin, Calif., upset No. 9 seeded Beau Bronson Foster from Los Angeles, 6-2, 2-6, 6-3, on Tuesday to advance to the semifinals in the Boys’ 12-and-under division at the 56^th Annual FILA Easter Bowl taking place at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden.

Lee will next on Wednesday face the youngest player remaining in the boys’ draw, 10-year-old James Borchard of Thousand Oaks. The No. 5-seeded Borchard from Thousand Oaks won his singles and doubles matches Tuesday as he beat No. 4 Daniel Gardality from San Diego, 6-4, 6-2, and as the No. 1 seeds in the Boys’ 12s Borchard and Taiki Bortolin took out Chris Deng and Seth Nguyen, 6-1, 6-1, to reach the semifinals in doubles.

Although he lost both his matches on Tuesday, Foster said he is a regular at the BNP Paribas Open and the recent Masters 1000 event at Tennis Paradise inspired him to upset the No. 1 seed Thuta Smyan in the Round of 16, 6-3, 6-1.

“I saw [Jannik] Sinner play [Carlos] Alcaraz at the recent tournament and it was amazing,” said Foster, who had previously lost to the lefty Smyan 6-1, 6-2 at Clay Courts last year. “I just love Sinner because he’s so aggressive. This is my first time playing Easter Bowl so it was great to get revenge and beat the top seed.”

In the other Boys’ 12s semifinal it will be No. 2 Jiarui Zhang of Houston against No. 3 Rex Kulman of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., as both won easily Tuesday dropping a total of just six games between them.

The Girls’ 12s semifinals will pit top-seeded Nikol Davletshina from Boca Raton, Fla., against unseeded Isabelle Nguyen from San Gabriel, Calif. All Nguyen has done this week is beat the No. 3 and No. 5 seeds and if she can topple the No. 1 Wednesday she will go on to play the winner of No. 2 Nadia Poznick from Ann Arbor, Mich., or No. 9 Savannah Schmitz from La Jolla, Calif.

In the Boys’ 14s, top-seeded Safir Azam from Redmond, Wash., kept up his winning ways as he cruised into the semifinals.

In the Girls’ 14s semifinals unseeded Julie Seversen from Trabuco Canyon, Calif., will face No. 3 Anajai Vickneswaran from Surprise, Ariz., and No. 6 Raya Kotseva from Las Vegas will be matched against unseeded Kingsley Wolf from Pacific Palisades, Calif. On Tuesday, Kotseva upset No. 2 seed Lyla Middleton, 6-2, 6-3.

In the Girls’ 18s top-seeded Capucine Jauffret from Wilmington, Del., advanced to the Round of 16 with a three-set win over Eva Oxford of Dallas, Texas, as did No. 2 Addison Lanton of Elgin, Ill.

Keep up with all the FILA Easter Bowl on the daily Live Stream with Fox Sports Radio and Tennis Channel commentator Bryan Fenley handling the play-by-play duties, and check out the tournament on Facebook (www.facebook.com/EasterBowl) and X (@easterbowl) and Instagram (@easterbowltennis).