INDIAN WELLS, Calif. (March 28, 2026) – Three unseeded Southern California players will vie for coveted Boys’ and Girls’ 18s singles title on Sunday at the 58th Annual Easter Bowl Presented by adidas.

Arcadia’s Peter Jorniak faces Rishvanth Krishna from Irvine at 10:30 a. m. at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden in the Boys’ 18s final, while at the same time on the girls’ side No. 1 seeded Ellery Mendell from Watkinsville, Ga., takes on unseeded Yilin Chen from Poway, Calif.

The 17-year-old high school junior and powerful serving Jorniak upset top-seeded and Notre Dame bound Alexander Suhanitski from New Rochelle, N. Y., 6-2, 6-3. He said he learned a lot about Suhanitski’s game watching his semifinal match.

“I had a strategy going in and when I watched him yesterday and I noticed his forehand was a little slower than his backhand – so I was just targeting that,” said Jorniak, who had never been past a USTA Level 1 quarterfinal before Friday. “I don’t think I hit a single second serve to his backhand.”

Jorniak is being 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.”

Jorniak attends public school and is a junior at Arcadia High School. He played a USTA Level 3 in Camarillo last week and said he’s now riding a 10-match winning streak and playing with extreme confidence. He joked that if he gets added to the Easter Bowl past champions list, he might be done paying Gage for his hitting sessions.

“I’m going to try and win tomorrow and he’s going to have to start paying me,” he said.

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.

“I’m not really surprised,” Krishna said. “I’m just happy to be here.”

Krishna, who won the prestigious Ojai Tennis Tournament Boys’ Interscholastic title last April as a sophomore at University High in Irvine also leading his team to a CIF state title, is being home schooled this year and said he doesn’t work with a coach, instead choosing to play with a lot of top players near him in Orange County.

Sharing Krishna’s sentiments about not being surprised to make Sunday’s 8 a. m. Boys’ 16s singles final, after New York’s No. 3 seeded Piotr Gradzki came back to eliminate top-seeded Eli Kaminski, 2-6, 6-1, 6-4, he said he expected to win the entire thing when the week started.

“I mean, honestly, I was expecting to win this tournament,” said Gradzki, who is coached by Nick Bradley at the John McEnroe Academy on Randall’s Island in Manhattan, N. Y. “I just need one more.”

Gradzki will face wild card Anay Kulkarni, who beat No. 6 Ivan Rybak, 7-5, 6-4, to continue his Easter Bowl run.

Gradzki, 15, was in a slump losing his last five matches, including both singles and doubles at the San Diego ITF last week. He decided to stay in California and keep getting acclimated to the climate. “I just felt like I got used to the conditions,” he said. “I think it really was just my preparation for this tournament.”

The Ohio State-bound Mendell beat unseeded Isabelle DeLuccia, 7-6 (4), 6-2, while Chen got past No. 3 Alyson Shannon for a second straight time, 6-1, 6-1.

Chen had been a seed killer all week beating the No 2, 3 and two No. 9-16 seeded players. At the 2022 Easter Bowl, Chen lost in the Girls’ 12s singles final. She is coached by Josh Milton and David Rice at the LaValle Club (formerly Morgan Run) in Rancho Santa Fe.

In the Girls’ 16s singles final at 8 a. m., it will be the battle for Maryland supremacy as No. 1 Sylvana Jalbert from Mount Airy, Md., takes on No. 4 and fellow 15-year-old Shristi Selvan from Laurel, Md. The two Baltimore suburbs are just 45 miles apart. Jalbert beat the unseeded Caroline Croan from Illinois, 6-3, 6-3, and the Selvan finds herself in a second straight Level 1 national final having won the Winternationals gold ball in January. She came back to end SoCal wild card Tanvi Pandey’s miraculous Easter Bowl run, 2-6, 6-4, 6-1.

All doubles finals in the 18s and 16s, as well as 3rd-4th and consolation finals will conclude the Easter Bowl on Sunday.

The Easter Bowl finals 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.

Credit: Easter Bowl