Wild-Card Shannon Lam, Just 13, Shocks No. 5-Seed Sonya Macavei In ITF First Round

Just 13 years old, Shannon Lam took advantage of a USTA-granted wild card and upset the No. 5 seed Sonya Macavei in the first round of the Girls’ ITF 18s division on Tuesday at the 54^th FILA Easter Bowl.

The match took two days to complete as Lam and Macavei left the Indian Wells Tennis Garden on Monday night with Macavei leading 5-7, 4-1, when the match was called for the day because of rain. When play resumed, Lam of East Brunswick, N.J., started strong and rallied to finish off the ITF-world ranked No. 53 player Macavei of Loveland, Ohio, 5-7, 6-2, 6-4.

Last year at the FILA Easter Bowl played in San Diego, Lam won the Girls’ 12s singles title without dropping a set. She started 2022 by making it to the final of the Junior Orange Bowl in the Girls’ 14s.

“I usually don’t check my opponent’s stats, but before the match I found out she was ranked in the world top 100,” said Lam of the 18-year-old Macavei. “It was a really good win. I feel like I needed that confidence.”

Just like the second set, Ham started the third set quickly with two early breaks of serve and a 5-1 lead. “I started hitting softer and she was taking advantage,” said Ham, who had a match point at 5-2 but couldn’t convert making an unforced error. “I got nervous at the end but throughout the whole match I didn’t have any expectations. One of my friends told me that since everyone is older than me, they should be feeling the pressure.”

The grounds were abuzz during the Lam-Macavei match when it was learned that FILA Easter Bowl defending champion and world-ranked ITF No. 6 Liv Hovde had decided to withdraw from the singles event because of a nagging back injury. Hovde, who is coached by former Grand Slam champion Phil Dent in Keller, Texas, did play in her doubles match on Tuesday. Top-seeded along with ITF No. 2-seeded singles player Qavia Lopez, the pair opened with a straight-set win. Lopez was a straight sets winner in singles earlier in the day, as was No. 3 Reese Brantmeier

In the Girls’ 16s singles, top-seeded Stephanie Yakoff of Fort Lee, N.J., kept up her winning ways with another easy win to advance to the Round of 16. In two matches, Yakoff has dropped just one game. Unseeded players continued to shine as Krisha Mahendran, Kate Fakih, Addison Bowman, Alex Ackman, Sydney Jarar, Tianmei Wang, and Alexis Nguyen were all second-round winners on Tuesday.

In the Boys’ 16s singles, top-seeded Andrew Ena of Rego Park, N.Y., was tested big-time in Round 2 as he need three sets (7-5 in the 3^rd) to beat Amesh Singh of Plano, Texas. No. 3 Cyrus Mahjoob of Rockville, Md., also needed three sets to move on in a day of competitive matches. It was unseeded Shaurya Bharadwaj of Charlotte, N.C., who provided the most dramatic finish on the day as he ousted No. 4 seed Chase Fralick, 6-4, 7-6 (7), 7-6 (5).

In the Boys’ 14s singles, top-seeded Ronit Karki of East Brunswick, N.J., advanced to the semifinals and will next face 9-16 seeded Noah Johnston of Anderson, S.C. No. 3 seeded Evan Sharygin of Newburgh, Ind., will play Nathaniel Suh of Orange, Calif. in the other semifinal at IWTG. Suh survived two match points to beat Ford McCollum of Los Angeles, 5-7, 6-2, 7-5 in an All-SoCal matchup.

In the Girls’ 14s singles, top-seeded Capucine Jauffret of Wilmington, Del., outlasted No. 5 Kenna Erickson of Katy, Texas, in the quarterfinals with a 7-6 (3) third-set tiebreaker win. She will next face Nicole Okhtenberg of Boca Raton, Fla., in an 11:30 a.m. semi. Amy Lee of Beverly Hills, Calif., meets Avery Nguyen of El Dorado Hills, Calif. Both are seeded No. 9-16.

In the Boys’ 12s singles, unseeded Shaan Majeed of Cumming, Ga., upset top-seeded Jordan Lee from Orlando, Fla., to move onto the semifinals. He will face Michael Antonius of Buffalo, N.Y. The other semifinal will see No. 3 Teodor Davidov of Bradenton, Fla., against No. 2 Vihann Reedy of San Jose, Calif. FILA Easter Bowl fans will recall last year it was Davidov who caused a mini sensation as video of him captured by ZooTennis.com blogger Colette Lewis hitting forehands from both sides went viral and viewed by more than half-a-million people via Twitter:

B12s quarterfinalist Teodor Davidov never hits a backhand. Alternates serving left-handed and right-handed too#adidasEasterBowl pic.twitter.com/yWZqmAHURN

— Colette Lewis (@zootennis) March 28, 2021

In the Girls’ 12 singles, a day after toppling the top-seed, Julia Seversen of Trabuco Canyon, Calif., fell to No. 5 Lyla Middleton of Rowe, N.M., Middleton will face unseeded Yilin Chen of San Diego in the semifinals Wednesday. No. 3 Anjani Vickneswaran of Surprise, Ariz., meets unseeded Baotong Xu of Rolling Hill Estates, Calif., in the other semi.

Draws, results and schedules for all divisions, including the boys’ and girls’ 16s, 14s and 12s, can be found here.