Easter Bowl USTA Spring Nationals Will Once
Again Feature Future of American Tennis

Just two weeks after American Taylor Fritz won the biggest pro title of his career capturing the BNP Paribas Open men’s singles title at the Masters 1000 event at Indian Wells Tennis Garden in 2022, another Southern Californian Alex Michelsen was making headlines in the shadows of one of the world’s largest tennis stadiums by winning the prestigious Easter Bowl.

On that April Sunday four years ago, the 17-year-old from Aliso Viejo Michelsen became the first player since Donald Young in 2006 to sweep both the singles and doubles at the Level 1 tournament, a USTA Spring Nationals awarding gold, silver, and bronze balls in Boys’ and Girls’ 12s, 14s, 16 and 18s divisions.

Fast forward to 2026 and just two weeks ago on Stadium 2 at IWTG, in a twist of fate, Michelsen upset the top American Fritz at the BNP Paribas Open for his second career win over the 2015 Boys’ 18s Easter Bowl champion, ultimately advancing to the Round of 16 as what’s commonly known as tennis’ “fifth major.”  

There’s no predicting if they’ll be another Fritz or Michelsen – or even another famous Easter Bowl alum at the BNP like quarterfinalist Learner Tien – lurking in the Easter Bowl draws this year, but it’s safe to say the future of American tennis will once again be on display during this year’s Easter Bowl Presented by Adidas set for March 21-29.  

In last year’s event, young 11-year-old James Borchard from Thousand Oaks pulled his best Michelsen impression winning both the singles and doubles titles in the Boys’ 12s. Borchard, who is coached by his father Quinn, was born in the leafy Ventura County suburb of Thousand Oaks, which just happens to be the same hometowns of former Easter Bowl winners Sam Querrey, Marcos Giron, and Claire Liu, the latter two who are currently competing on the ATP and WTA Tours, respectively. Giron won the Easter Bowl 18s in 2011 and Liu the 18s in 2015 and 2017, while the recently retired Querrey took home the Easter Bowl 18s title in 2005 and the 16s in 2004.

This year, Borchard steps up to the 14s where he very likely will run into SoCal rivals Andy Wu of Diamond Bar and Nathan Lee of Tustin with the pair winning a USTA singles bronze and silver, respectively, at the USTA Winter Nationals to start the year. Lee, who chose not to play Easter Bowl last year, will be looking to advance one round further as he was also a silver ball winner in the 12s in 2024.

In the Girls’ 14s, expect the favorites to collect hardware in the desert to include Andrea Jakovljevic (La Jolla), Mia Sandblom (Manhattan Beach), and Charlotte Kim (Irvine) who all shined at the year’s first Nationals.

Boys’ 12s doubles finalists at Winters included the pairing of Jaden Joyner of Tarzana and Kade Grover of Laguna Beach. On the girls’ side in the 12s, Lucy Jiang from Rancho Palos Verdes will look to win her second straight national title in doubles while her neighbor Grace Malhotra of Rolling Hills Estates would like nothing more than to repeat her finals appearance at Winters and capture gold this time.

Last year, Armira Kockinis of La Habra Heights displayed an all-around game taught to her the last few years by Michelsen and Tien’s formative coaching team at Tier-1 Performance as she rolled to the Girls’ 16s singles crown. This year she takes on the nation’s elite in the 18s.

In the Boys’ 18s, watch out for San Diego’s Ilias Bouzoubaa, who sailed through Winter Nats unseeded in doubles and came home with a silver ball.

Here’s a look at Southern California’s entries not already mentioned taking part in this year’s Easter Bowl by division:

> BOYS’ 12s

Thomas Gamble (Newport Beach), William Zhou (Glendale), Reed Kuai (Newbury Park), Pavel Abadzhev (Montrose), Henrik Khemiy (Studio City), Patrick Hopkins (Hawthorne), Benjamin Foreman (Palm Desert), Benedict Zhong (Irvine), Roman Gabriel (Santa Monica), Philip Bogomolny (Mission Viejo), Gaelan Thompson-Healy (Carpinteria)

> GIRLS’ 12s

Lindy Zhou (Glendale), Alara Buyukuncu (Irvine), Cordelia Skye (Los Angeles), Lerong Yao (Rancho Palos Verdes), Emanuela Trenet (San Diego), Kate Zhang (San Diego), Ryan Wilson (Lakewood), Suzanne Kang (San Diego), Kira Elliott (Los Angeles), Melody Li (San Diego), Sofia Pizarro (Irvine), Malee Coupal (Aliso Viejo), Isabella Ball (Manhattan Beach)

> BOYS’ 14s

Jerry Qi (Irvine), Reyansh Pant (Irvine), Daniel Gardality (San Diego), Noah Bouzoubaa (San Diego), James Borchard (Thousand Oaks), Daksh Bharadwaj (San Diego), Ciaran Tober-Bridges (Goleta), London Slaton (Thousand Oaks), Beau Bronson Foster (Los Angeles), Benjamin Inukai (Redondo Beach)

> GIRLS’ 14s

Victoria Park (Pasadena), Isabelle Nguyen (San Gabriel), Annabelle Huang (Irvine), Gwyneth Britton (Whittier), Aarna Patel (Cerritos), Lyla Qian (Aliso Viejo), Kareena Cross (Los Angeles), Skylar Mandell (Encino), Nicole Handjono (Cerritos), Danielle Han (Laguna Niguel), Victoria Wang (San Diego)

> BOYS’ 16s

Nikhil Bommaiah (Tustin), Zhiyu Yuan (Chino Hills), JiHyuk Im (Irvine), Zander Abrams (South El Monte), Aiden Zadeh (Los Angeles), Adrian Sharma (Porter Ranch), Paxton Au (Manhattan Beach), Kona Parseghian (La Jolla), Mayurchandra Bharath (San Diego), Takuto Goh (Culver City), Yuan Asher (Long Beach)

> GIRLS’ 16s

Kingsley Wolf (Pacific Palisades), Madeline Cleary (Moorpark), Mingyue Deng (Irvine), Kiana Smith (Carlsbad), Kiana Huerta (San Diego), Ania Zabost (Tarzana), Savannah Schmitz (La Jolla), Sophia Dumitrascu (Yorba Linda), Emery June Martin (Los Angeles)

> BOYS’ 18s

David Wu (San Diego), Siddharth Bharadwaj (Irvine), Matteo Huarte (Tustin), Joseph Nau (Brentwood), Peter Jorniak (Arcadia), Kristian Sharma (Porter Ranch), Liam Alvarez (Long Beach), Pavel Bushuev (Irvine), Justin Riley Anson (Laguna Niguel), Ivan Pfluger (Newport Beach), Rishvanth Krishna (Irvine)

> GIRLS’ 18s

Kylie Liu (San Diego), Yilin Chen (San Diego), Reagan Levine (Laguna Beach), Natalie Kha (Chino Hills), Raina Miae Kim (Santa Monica); Delilah Rizvi (Newbury Park), Amy Lee (Beverly Hills), Julia Seversen (Trabuco Canyon), Juny Huh (San Diego), Abigail Haile (Los Angeles)