Southern California’s Finest Shine at Easter Bowl
USTA Junior Spring Nationals

A finalist in the Girls’ 12s at the Easter Bowl four years ago, Yilin Chen was hoping to go one round farther and win her first Level 1 national title, but came up a bit short in the Girls’ 18s singles final having to settle for the Silver ball at the USTA Spring Nationals played at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden.

“I just don’t think I adjusted well to the conditions today,” said Chen, who was unseeded and lost to No. 1 seed Ellery Mendell in the final, 6-2, 6-4. “I think I could have been a lot more confident and assertive in my shots.”

Chen had been a seed killer all week beating the No. 2, 3 and two No. 9-16 seeded players. She is coached by Josh Milton and David Rice at the LaValle Club (formerly Morgan Run) in Rancho Santa Fe. Chen is a junior at Westview High and said she will head back to school and begin AP testing and finals before a return back to the SoCal Pro Series this summer.  

Chen played three SoCal Pro Series events in 2024 and four last summer winning her first WTA ranking point.

“I want to thank USTA SoCal, and especially (Executive Director) Trevor Kronemann,” Chen said. “They really helped me out a lot with two wild cards. It’s really good to get that experience against some top college players.”

The following is an age-group look of top performances by Southern California players:

Singles Wrap-Up

> BOYS’ 18s

In the final, unseeded wild card and 2025 SoCal Junior Sectionals champion Rishvanth Krishna from Irvine beat Arcadia’s Peter Jorniak, 6-4, 6-2. “I was nervous when the match started but I relaxed as the match went on,” said Krishna, a home-school junior who has committed to play for Rice University in Houston. “I served really well today and was finding my forehand.”

Jorniak also came in unseeded and is a junior at Arcadia High. “I’ll look back at this as a very big accomplishment,” he said. “I’ll practice a couple of things when I get home that I can do better at because there’s always something you can improve on.”

Jorniak is coached by two-time Easter Bowl champion and former UCLA All-American Gage Brymer and his father Chuck Brymer and said the sparring sessions is the reason he can “hang with these guys out here.”

Krishna avenged a defeat to No. 9 seeded David Wu of San Diego in last year’s Easter Bowl Round of 16 and came out on top, 7-6 (5), 6-1. Wu ended up getting the Bronze ball as his 3rd-4th match wasn’t played because of an injury to his opponent No. 1 seeded Alexander Suhanitski. Wu upset No. 2 Omar Rhazali from Stamford, Conn., 6-4, 3-6, 10-7, in the quarterfinals.

> BOYS’ 16s

JiHyuk Im from Irvine advanced to the Round of 16. In the second round, Adrian Sharma from Porter Ranch upset No. 4 Ethan Turunen from Maple Grove, Minn., taking him out in straight sets.

> GIRLS’ 16s

In the semifinals, Irvine wild card Tanvi Pandey fell to No. 4 seeded and eventual champion Shristi Selvan from Laurel, Md., 2-6, 6-4, 6-1. Pandey finished fourth as she dropped the first set on the final day and was forced to retire down 1-0 in the second due to injury in the 3rd-4th match. In an all-SoCal matchup in the quarterfinals, Pandey beat her neighbor Mingyue Deng, also from Irvine.

> GIRLS 14s

Unseeded Isabelle Nguyen from San Gabriel had an amazing Easter Bowl tournament as she advanced to the semifinals in singles and captured her first USTA national ball winning Bronze with a 6-4, 6-1 win over Arizona’s Nicole Alexandrovich. She had previously upset the No. 5 seed. Nguyen is coached in Carson by USTA National Girls’ Coach Morisa Yang.

> BOYS’ 14s

Lefty and No. 3 seed Nathan Lee from Tustin was having a great tournament – until the semifinals when he ran up against a freight train in No. 1-seeded Ishaan Marla and lost a gallant first-set tiebreaker that lasted more than 90 minutes, 7-4, in favor of Georgia’s Marla ultimately losing in straight sets. Lee ended up taking fourth place falling to Sunnyvale’s Pranav Vignesh in the back draw. 

> BOYS’ 12s

The same scenario fell to Newport Beach’s No. 3 seeded Thomas Gamble, who was cruising along until meeting No. 1 seeded Dmitriy Flyam from Hallandale Beach, Fla. Gamble took the first set, 6-4, but the eventual champion Flyam finally found his fluid groundstrokes and outlasted Gamble, 6-0, 6-2. Gamble ended the tourney placing fourth having to retire from his 3rd-4th match down 5-2 with a strained calf. In the consolation final, it was an all-SoCal as Glendale’s William Zhou outlasted Tarzana’s Jaden Joyner, 3-6, 1-6, 10-4.

> GIRLS’ 12s

Glendale’s No. 4 Lindy Zhou impressed all with her play as the 11-year-old advanced all the way to the singles final in her second Easter Bowl capturing the Silver ball. In the all-SoCal semifinal matchup, Zhou got past No. 9 Cordelia Skye of West Hollywood, 6-0, 6-1. Skye, who had upset the No. 2 seed early in the tournament, came back the following day and braved the heat once again to capture the Bronze ball in a three-set win. Alara Buyukuncu from Irvine won the back draw consolation final beating Lucy Jiang from Rancho Palos Verdes along the way. Skye is coached by her father Owen Williams – who played at St. Mary’s on a college basketball scholarship – on the public parks at Poinsettia and Plummer Park in West Hollywood.

Doubles Wrap-Up

> BOYS’ 18s

The SoCal pairing of Matteo Huarte (Tustin) and Liam Alvarez (Long Beach) advanced to the final and fell in three sets for the Silver ball. The Bronze balls went to Justin Riley Anson from Laguna Niguel and Andre Alcantara from Las Vegas.

> GIRLS’ 18s

Silver ball winners were Santa Monica’s Raina Miae Kim, who partnered with Maryland’s Carolina Castro. San Diego’s Kylie Liu and Elena Zhao took the Bronze and Abigail Haile from Los Angeles was fourth. 

> BOYS’ 16s

Adrian Sharma from Porter Ranch and JiHyuk Im from Irvine were quarterfinalists for the best SoCal showing with different partners. 

> GIRLS’ 16s

Emery June Martin from Palisades teamed with 16s singles Gold winner Shristi Selvan to take home the title as the No. 5 seeds beat Alexandra Grilliot from Indiana and Boca Raton’s Nikol Davletshina, 6-2, 6-3. The No. 2 seeds Kingsley Wolf from Pacific Palisades and Adelyn Gross from St. Louis won the Bronze.

> BOYS’ 14s

Tustin’s Nathan Lee advanced to the finals losing in a heartbreaking third-set tiebreaker. Lee beat his former doubles partner and last year’s Boys’ 12s singles and doubles champion James Borchard from Thousand Oaks, who placed fourth. 

> GIRLS’ 14s

In the final, Whittier’s Gwyneth Britton teamed up with Ava Chu from New York as the pair fell to No. 2 seeds Natalia Martinez and Reese Ellingson, 6-4, 6-2. Victoria Park from Pasadena and Isabelle Nguyen from San Gabriel took home the Bronze with a 3rd-4th place win over a New Jersey pairing, 6-3, 7-6 (4).

> BOYS’ 12s

The No. 2 seeded Thomas Gamble from Newport Beach picked up a Silver ball by advancing to the final with his New York partner Yifan Nie. Benedict Zhong from Irvine and Montrose’s Pavel Abadzhev fell in the semifinals to the eventual champions in a third-set tiebreaker, and the next day grabbed the Bronze ball with a 3rd-4th playoff win. 

> GIRLS’ 12s

Grace Malhotra from Rolling Hills Estates was a big winner taking the Gold ball for her doubles title with Las Vegas’ Ayenxavia Calugay as the No. 3 seeds got past Alara Buyukuncu from Irvine and New York’s Catherine Chan, 3-6, 6-4, 6-1. Lindy Zhou won a third-place Bronze in doubles as she and her New Jersey partner Summer Yang beat top-seeded Lucy Jiang from Rancho Palos Verdes and her Virginia partner Valentina Singh Carvajal, 7-5, 6-0, as the No. 2 seeded team. 

Easter Bowl Sportsmanship Winners from SoCal

Boys’ 16: JiHyuk Im (Irvine)
Girls’ 16s: Tanvi Pandey (Irvine)
Boys’ 12s: Jaden Joyner (Tarzana)
Girls’ 12s: Cordelia Skye (West Hollywood)