Tennis: Justin Lyons serves up two wins to start Wild Card round of Pensacola Futures Championship

Day one of the Wild Card round of the 2023 Pensacola Futures Pro Men’s 25K Circuit tennis tournament at Roger Scott Tennis Center was all aces, especially for local star favorite Justin Lyons, who won a pair of singles matches after a first-round bye.

After a year hiatus, the Futures, a USTA Pro Circuit Event is now back in full swing. Hosted by Pensacola Sports and the City of Pensacola since 2010, big name players like Jack Sock, Denis Shapovalov, Alexander Zverev and Felix Auger-Aliassime have competed on the RSTC clay.

This year’s crop of players stack up well against previous events. Former 17th-ranked player in the world, Bernard Tomic, and former top-40 players Ryan Harrison and Tennys Sandgren are just a few of the incredible pros vying for the Pensacola prize.

Playoff Roundup: Catholic boys and girls tennis take second at state, Goyins 1A runner-up

High School Tennis: Catholic continues string of state berths after taking Region 1-1A crowns

Futures tournament director Skip Vogelsang encourages tennis and sports fans of all ages to come watch the free, high-quality tennis.

"You only get to see live pro tennis in Pensacola once a year at the Pensacola Pro M25K, so let’s take advantage of the opportunity to see players who will be playing the majors in just a few years,” Vogelsang said.

There wasn’t a better way to highlight the start of the Futures than two big victories by Pensacola Catholic High senior and Florida State University-bound Justin Lyons.

Lyons, competing in both singles and doubles, took less than an hour early Thursday afternoon to dispatch 16-year old David Ismanescu 6-1, 6-1. He only double-faulted once, while hitting several aces and pin-point winners.

“I served really good, which gave me a lot of confidence,” Lyons said. “I hit my my forehand really well, and I still need to work on my return and just closing the point. But overall, I played pretty good. The win gives me confidence for the rest of the tournament, and hopefully I can keep playing well and chugging along.”

Rather than hold off a day to play a second singles match, Lyons and University of Florida’s Borys Zgola (who also won easily earlier) chose to hit Brian Sakey Court No. 22 for a 3 p.m. face off. The match proved to be an epic battle, with Lyons fighting off three match points to win 6-1, 4-6, 11-9 (10-point tiebreaker third set)in front of many family members and friends.

“I don’t know what was going on in the first set; I was serving so good, and hitting my forehand unbelievable,” Lyons said. “After the first set, I kept it up until about 3-1, and then I lost some momentum. I got broken that game after being up 30-15, and he started serving well and he changed his strategy on the return. He took a step really far back and started lengthening the points. With him standing at the fence, I should’ve been more aggressive, but I was a little tentative…In the third set, I started out the tiebreaker really strong and put some pressure on him.”

Lyons got up to a 5-2 lead in the tiebreak, but a rare double-fault and unforced errors allowed Zgola to even the score.

“That was definitely the theme of the match,” he said. “My serve started to taper off, and whenever that happens, I start to lose more points. We got to 6-6, and I couldn’t make a first serve, and he ended up attacking the second, and then I missed it back again.”

Zgola then followed with two big serves and a cross-court winner, and just needed one more point for the match at 9-6. But Lyons fought back valiantly.

“At that point, I knew I had to make some first serves and get it to 8-9,” he said. “I felt like I played with a lot less to lose—I knew if I lost just one point, it was over. I just had to play strong.”

Lyons made it 9-9 as Zgola’s shot went long, then earned his own match point on a deep shot that hit the baseline. He then won as his opponent’s final shot went into the net.

“I feel relieved and happy,” he said. “Hopefully I can win the next round. ... There’s still really good Division 1 college players. They’re both good players and good guys, so it should be a fun match.”

Lyons will team with local player Will Neuner on Friday afternoon in doubles, not before 2 p.m.

The Wild Card round will run through Saturday, with the Qualifiers beginning Monday. The Main Draw starts next Wednesday; doubles final will be on Saturday, with singles at noon Sunday

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: FSU tennis commit Justin Lyons wins twice at Pensacola Futures Championship