One year after bursting onto the national junior tennis scene and making the finals of the Boys’ 12s singles as an unseeded player in 2024, Nathan Lee decided to skip last year’s Easter Bowl USTA Junior Spring Nationals.
With two convincing wins in the Boys’ 14s at the 58th Annual Easter Bowl Presented by adidas, which kicked off this weekend at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden, the 13-year-old Lee made a bold statement that he will be one of the players to beat at this year’s Level 1 tournament.
Lee, who lives and trains in Tustin about 100 miles northwest of Indian Wells, beat Ethan Su from Kissimmee, Fla., 6-2, 6-2, and explained afterward why he chose to sit out last year, although he did make it over to the desert on the weekend to cheer on older brother, Tyler, who made a run to the 18s singles final.
“I thought I was too good for the 12s, but the 14s would have been really tough,” Lee admitted on Sunday. “Plus, I was in public school, and it was an important week and I didn’t want to miss it.”
Lee will next face Redondo Beach’s Benjamin Inukai in the third round on Monday.
The Coachella Valley’s lone entry in this year’s Easter Bowl is 12-year-old Benjamin Foreman from Palm Desert. On Saturday, Foreman gave a valiant effort in a loss in the Boys’ 12 singles to Yann Carl Barthold from Port Washington, N.Y., 5-7, 6-3, 10-4.
Foreman was watched by family and friends, and his coach, Pam Montez, who is one of the best players to ever come out the Coachella Valley growing up in nearby La Quinta and is currently a teaching pro at Monterey Country Club.
In 2008, Montez became the first player from La Quinta High School to capture the CIF-Southern Section singles title, finished her senior season with a perfect 46-0 record and also reached a career-high ITF junior ranking of No. 41 in the world. In 2012 she was an All-American at UCLA ending the season ranked No. 4 in the country with Courtney Dolehide. The pair reached the semifinals of the NCAA Championships.
Foreman said playing in his fifth Nationals, and first Easter Bowl, was “pretty nerve-wracking.”
With mother Jennifer and father Kris watching, Foreman rallied from down 3-5 to take the first set. “I just tried to be more aggressive and hit to his backhand a little more,” Foreman said. “I think I stayed calm even though I was in a big hole.”
Foreman said he loved playing in the shadow of one of the world’s largest tennis stadiums and attended several days of the recent Master 1000 BNP Paribas Open. He got to see his favorite players Arthur Fils and Jannik Sinner. Asked if he was able to meet any of the pros or get any autographs, he said no, “but I got close.”
Next up for Foreman is the USTA National Clay Courts in Orlando in July and then it’s on to the 14s as Foreman will age out of the 12s before National Hardcourts in August.
The top seed in the Boys’ 14s, Ishaan Marla from Mason, Ohio, had two easy wins by identical 6-2, 6-1 scores and No. 2 Michael Chervenkov from Canton, Ga., did the same dropping a total of five games in his first two rounds.
In an All-Southern Cal matchup that produced an upset, Goleta’s Ciaran Tober-Bridges split sets with No. 7 Yi He Gao from Rancho Santa Fe and then took the super tiebreaker 10-6 to advance. Unseeded Aarian Nayak from Henderson, Nev., knocked off No. 4 seed and Lee’s doubles partner Evaan Mohan from Shelton, Conn., 6-3, 6-1.
In the Girls’ 14s, top-seed Nadia Poznick (Ann Arbor, Mich.) moved onto the third round but there were two big upsets in the second round as No. 3 Ava Chua (Brooklyn, N.Y.) lost to Angela Li from NorCal 11-9 in the tiebreaker and San Gabriel’s Isabelle Nguyen upset No. 5 Reese Ellingson (Saint Paul, Minn.), 6-1, 6-3.
In the Boys’ 12s, while No. 1 seeded Dmitriy Flyman from Hallandale Beach, Fla., was moving on and not dropping a game in his second round, 6-0, 6-0 win, that was not the case for No. 2 Yifan Nie from Great Neck, N.Y., who was upset by Mile Markham of Lawrence, Kan., 6-1, 6-4. In the Girls’ 12s, top seeds Chloe Anthony (Lakeville, Mass.), Summer Yang (McLean, Va.) and Valentina Singh Carvajal (Morristown, N.J.) all advanced.
The boys’ and girls’ 16s and 18s will begin play on Tuesday.
One of the nation’s largest and most prestigious junior tennis tournaments, the Easter Bowl includes 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.
Easter Bowl matches will once again be live-streamed on www.EasterBowl.com with Radio Tennis’ Ken Thomas on the call. Click this link to catch all the action: https://youtube.com/@easterbowl?si=Dd0rI53GlLu8Ot2y. The Easter Bowl Tournament Director is Indian Wells Tennis Garden Director of Tennis Jai Nettimi. To keep up with all the Easter Bowl news, visit the website at www.easterbowl.com.