Girls' 18s upsets headline ISC Day 1

In the ITF junior circuit’s answer to the professional tour’s Sunshine Swing, the Easter Bowl and the International Spring Championships (ISC) take place in back-to-back early-spring weeks each year in Southern California.       

This year, several top American boys and girls made the two-and-a-half hour drive west from Indian Wells to Carson after strong results at the Grade B1 event at the home of the BNP Paribas Open. Both events are played on outdoor hard courts, though ISC, a Grade 1 event, is open to international players, as its name suggests.

Easter Bowl 18s quarterfinalists Emma Jackson (pictured above), Alexandra Yepifanova, Blaise Bicknell, Andrew Dale, Ronan Jachuck and Marcus McDaniel all continued their strong form with Round-1 victories at the ISC. But it was 14-year-old Katrina Scott, the Easter Bowl girls’ 12s champion in 2016, who scored the biggest result of Day 1 in Carson.

Scott, who was selected to be part of a USTA Player Development camp during the recent U.S. Fed Cup tie against Australia in Asheville, N.C., upset No. 3 seed Abigail Forbes, 6-4, 7-5, for one of the best results of her junior career. It continues a strong start to 2019 for the Los Angeles native, who notched her best career result in January, with a run to a Grade 1 semifinal in Barranquilla, Colombia.

Scott defeated Jackson, seeded No. 12 this week, in that semifinal run, before falling to eventual champion Savannah Broadus, 7-6, 6-7, 5-7. She could meet Broadus again in Carson, but it would have to be in the final, as the No. 2 seed is in the opposite half of the draw. Hurricane Tyra Black, the girls’ 18s top seed, looms as a potential semifinal opponent for Scott, with each of the Top 2 seeds set to begin their ISC campaigns on Tuesday.

Elvina Kalieva scored the other big upset on Day 1, taking out Canadian No. 9 seed Alexandra Vagramov, 6-4, 6-4.

Among the seeds who did advance in the girls’ 18s draw were No. 4 Charlotte Chavatipon (a 6-0, 6-0 winner), No. 12 Jackson, No. 14 Jenna DeFalco, No. 15 Yepifanova and No. 16 Hina Inoue.

While Black and Broadus were idle in the girls’ 18s competition, the Top 2 boys seeds were made to work in their opening-round encounters, with both doing just enough to escape in two tight sets. The top-seeded Liam Draxl, of Canada, defeated Maxwell McKennon, 6-3, 6-4, while No. 2 Eliot Spizzirri took out wild card Micah Braswell, 7-6, 7-5.

All of the boys’ seeds in action on Day 1 advanced, including No. 11 Bicknell, No. 13 Jachuck and No. 12 Dale, who matched Chavatipon with the only other double-bagel result in either 18s draw. Also through are No. 7 Andres Martin and No. 14 Keshav Chopra.

Round 1 in both the boys’ and girls’ 18s draws will conclude on Tuesday, with Easter Bowl finalists Robin Montgomery and Martin Damm in action.

For tournament information, including live scoring, visit the official ISC website.