For Tennis Parents by a Tennis Parent

The following is reprinted with permission from the media contact at the 2024 FILA Easter Bowl. I will be reprinting subsequent articles as they become available. Be sure to check out our latest podcast, recorded live at the tournament. Also, be sure to check out ZooTennis.com for daily updates from the Easter Bowl.

It wasn’t meant to be in singles on Wednesday for the youngest boy entered in the 56^th annual FILA Easter Bowl, but James Borchard knows there will many, many more Easter Bowls to come in the years ahead.

Despite his straight-set loss in the Boys’ 12s semifinals to unseeded Nathan Lee of Tustin, the 10-year-old and No. 5-seeded Borchard proved once again this week that he is one of the world’s best players born in 2013. On Thursday, Borchard will compete for a third place USTA Bronze ball in singles, but perhaps more importantly, will vie for gold in the 12s doubles final alongside partner Taiki Bortolin as the No. 1 seeded team meets No. 2s Daniel Gardality and Andy Wu in the doubles final in a match slated for 3 p.m. at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden.

Borchard, who is coached by his father Quinn, was born in the sleepy Ventura Country suburb of Thousand Oaks 45 miles north of Los Angeles via the US 101 Freeway, which just happens to be the same hometown 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.

It’s safe to say all three of them are familiar with the budding prodigy. “I spoke to Sam on the phone last week and he wished me good luck this week,” James said. “I’m pretty aware of the history of some of the top players from my area and I’m just glad I can follow their path and only hope to achieve just some of the success they have had on the pro tour.”

The Boys’ 12s singles final is set for Thursday with Lee to face the No 2 seed Jiarui Zhang from Houston. In the Girls’ 12s singles final, it will be top-seed Nikol Davletshina from Boca Raton, Fla., against No. 9 Savannah Schmitz from La Jolla, Calif.

All four of the boys’ and girls’ 12s and 14s finals are set to be played Thursday at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden at 10:30 a.m.

In the Boys’ 14s singles final, it will be No. 2 Andrew Johnson from Rancho Palos Verdes against No. 4 Izyan Ahmad from New Jersey. Ahmad on Wednesday upset top-seeded Safir Azam from Redmond, Wash., in straight sets. In the Girls’ 14s final No. 3 Anjani Vickneswaran from Surprise, Ariz., meets No. 6 Raya Kotseva from Las Vegas.

In the Boys’ 18s Round of 16, unseeded Even Burnett of Woodside continued his amazing run as the University of Texas commit beat Sanjeev Chundu, of Las Vegas, 6-2, 6-2. On Tuesday, Burnett knocked out defending champion Cassius Chinlund of Los Angeles, 7-5 in the third. Burnett next takes on fellow unseeded Ronit Karki of East Brunswick, N.J., in the quarterfinals. Others in the final eight include: Ian Bracks, Jack Satterfield, Saahith Jayaraman, Nicholas Reeves, Callum Markowitz and William Manning. No. 8 Jayaraman and No. 2 Manning are the only top eight seeds remaining as the finals will be guaranteed an unseeded player as the four players remaining in the top half of the draw are all unseeded.

In the Girls’ 18s Round of 16, three Californias moved on in the bottom half of the draw, including No. 7 Emily Deming from Fallbrook, No. 9 Daniela Borruel from Buena Park in SoCal, and No. 6 Avery Nguyen from El Dorado Hills in Northern California. Deming will have the toughest test of the three as she takes on Addison Lanton, the No. 2 seed from Elgin, Ill. Top-seeded Capucine Jauffret from Wilmington, Del., meets No. 5 Claire Hill from Cary, N.C. and No. 8 Tianmei Wang faces No. 9 Jennifer Jackson.

In the Girls’ 16s, top-seeded Bella Payne from Bradenton, Fla., won another straight-set match and will take on No. 8 Alexandra Wolf from Pacific Palisades.

In the Boys’ 16s, top-seed Gus Grumet from Mill Valley, Calif., won again, and will next take on the unseeded Tanishk Konduri from Cupertino in an all-NorCal matchup. Unseeded Andrew Li faces Gray Kelley and yet another unseeded player, Liam Alvarez, takes on No. 3 Lukas Phimvongsa while No. 2 Gavin Goode faces unseeded David Wu in the final quarterfinal matchup.

FILA Easter Bowl matches will once again be live-streamed on www.EasterBowl.com with Fox Sports Radio and Tennis Channel commentator Bryan Fenley handling the play-by-play duties starting on Wednesday. For complete draws, go to: https://easterbowl.com/scores-center/draws/. To keep up with all the FILA Easter Bowl news, visit the website at www.easterbowl.com.