INDIAN WELLS, Calif. (March 23, 2025) – The FILA Easter Bowl returns to the Indian Wells Tennis Garden for the 57th edition of one of the nation’s largest and most prestigious junior tennis tournaments.

Nearly every American men’s and women’s Grand Slam champion since the first tournament began in 1968 has competed in the FILA Easter Bowl, a true pipeline to the professional ranks. Just glance over the recently completed BNP Paribas and ongoing Miami Open draws and you will find a number of past FILA Easter Bowl champions, such as Taylor Fritz, Jenson Brooksby, Frances Tiafoe, Marcos Giron, Brandon Nakashima, Alex Michelsen, Emma Navarro and Claire Liu, to name a few.

The FILA Easter Bowl is a USTA Level 1 Spring National Championship in the 18s, 16s, 14s and 12s for both boys and girls with gold, silver and bronze balls handed out for top finishers in all eight singles and doubles divisions.

The boys’ and girls’ 12s and 14s kicked off play this weekend with the finals set for next Thursday. The 16 and 18s start on Tuesday with the finals taking place on Sunday. 

Last year, San Marino’s Tianmei Wang won the Girls’ 18s title beating Daniela Borruel from Buena Park, 6-4, 6-0. It was the No. 2 seeded William Manning of Raleigh, N. C., beating unseeded Ronit Karki of East Brunswick, N. J., to win the Boys’ 18s while Bella Payne from Bradenton, Fla., won the singles and doubles gold ball in the Girls’ 16s.

This year, the University of Georgia-bound Payne will play in the 18s as she will be looking to pick up more Easter Bowl hardware. But the 17-year-old will have to get through a tough draw of players, which includes USTA Winter Nationals finalist Carrie-Anne Hoo (Brooklyn, N. Y.), Thara Gowda (Rochester Hills, Mich.), JoAnna Kennedy (Englewood, Colo.), Chloe Qin (Bloomfield Hills, Mich.) and Karlin Schock (Green Bay, Wisc.).

In the Boys’ 18s Shaan Patel of St. Louis, Mo., is coming off a win at the USTA Winter Nationals to start the year and will look for his second straight gold ball win with Nicholas Patrick   (Coal Valley, Ill.), who is headed to Notre Dame, Drew Fishback (Geneva, N. Y.), Nav Dayal (Granite Bay, Calif.) and Georgetown-bound Joshua Lamm-Bocharov, (Gibsonia, Pa.) standing in the way.

Other top seeds in the Girls’ 16s include: Ann Bugaienko (Frisco, Texas), Carlota Moreno (Knoxville, Tenn.), Kohana Darroch (Walnut Creek, Calif.), Sophia Budacsek (Wilmette, Ill.), Carolina Castro (Stevensville, Md.). Boys’ 16s: Safir Azam (Redmond, Wash.), Alexander Suhanitski (New Rochelle, N. Y.), Magnus Weng (San Jose, Calif.), Maddox Bose (Winter Haven, Fla.) and Joseph Nau (Brentwood, Calif.).

Girls’ 14s: Anna Scott Laney (Birmingham, Ala.), Allison Wang (San Jose, Calif.), London Evans (Manchester, Mo.), Daniela Del Mastro (Maple Grove, Minn.), Emery Combs (Conway, S. C.). Boys’ 14s: Gadin Arun (Paradise Valley, Ariz.), Rafael Pawar (Essex Fells, N. J.), , Aayush Vartak (Edison, N. J.), Dylan Meineke (Frisco, Texas), Zesen Wang (State College, Pa.).

Girls’ 12s: Lucy Dupere (Wake Forest, N. C.), Gabrielle Villegas (Great Neck, N. Y.), Violetta Mamina (Henderson, Nev.), Mila Mikoczi Spivey (Houston, Texas), Brielle Amey (Boca Raton, Fla.), Kareena Cross (Los Angeles). Boys’ 12s: James Borchard (Thousand Oaks, Calif.), Evan Fan (Mason, Ohio), Udham Singh (Sunnyvale, Calif.), Jason Ye (Redmond, Wash.), William McGugin (Nashville, Tenn.).

FILA Easter Bowl matches will once again be live-streamed on www. EasterBowl.com. Colette Lewis from the website ZooTennis.com will once again be providing daily coverage of the Easter Bowl and will be on-site this year.

The iconic junior tournament started by Seena Hamilton in 1968 is considered the Super Bowl of junior tennis. Longtime Easter Bowl Chairman Emeritus Lornie Kuhle took over the event 13 years ago and was responsible for moving it to the Tennis Garden. There are few other junior tennis tournaments in the United States that possess the same rich history as the FILA Easter Bowl. The tournament started in New York City and has been played in Florida, Arizona and California.

To keep up with all the FILA Easter Bowl news, visit the website at www. easterbowl.com.