Randy Walker

Dan Martin of Canada and the University of Miami successfully fought through swirling 25 mph winds and came back from 3-5 down in the final set to beat Jaycer Lyeons of Houston 7-5, 1-6, 7-5 to win his first career ITF World Tennis Tour title at the $15,000 Mardy Fish Children’s Foundation Tennis Championships.
Martin, 22, entered the tournament unseeded in the 32-player field with a ranking of No. 1065 and earned 15 valuable ATP ranking points that will put him into the ATP top 1,000. However, Martin mainly entered the event to get in competitive shape before May’s NCAA singles championship. Martin, a senior at Miami after transferring from Dartmouth, is ranked No. 22 in the ITA collegiate singles rankings and will be a threat to win the singles title for the Hurricanes when he competes in late May at the USTA National Campus at Lake Nona.

WATCH a post-match one-on-one interview of Martin discussing his win here: https://youtu.be/el1_0gCpSWs

WATCH the trophy presentation and on-court interviews of both players here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=el1_0gCpSWs&t=12s

Lyeons, who now trains in Miami, was the last player added into the main draw of the event before the start of the qualifying event and ended up finishing second in his first ever ITF World Tennis Tour final. With an ATP ranking of No. 1,337 Lyeons was the last player not directly accepted into the main draw as of last Sunday night when the sign-in for the tournament concluded. However, the U.S. Tennis Association had only issued two of its three main draw wild cards (or free direct entries) and decided to award the last entry to Lyeons as the highest-ranked American not in the main draw. This allowed Lyeons to not have to win two qualifying round matches just to get into the main draw. Once in the main draw, Lyeons had a crazy run into the final first beating top American junior Kaylun Bigun in the first round. Lyeons battled top-seed and Romanian Davis Cupper Adrian Boitan in the second round the two fought until 3-3 in the third set, when rain delayed the match. After a three-hour delay, they resumed the match with only about 45 minutes of daylight remaining. Just after sunset, Lyeons led 4-1 in the final-set tiebreaker when Boitan asked for the match not to continued due to darkness, which was accorded. Lyeons, then sleeping on being only three points from the biggest win of his career, needed four points to close out the 6-4, 6-7 (6), 7-6(2) victory, saving three match points in the three-hour-plus epic. Lyeons then returned to the court a bit later on Friday and faced Dominican Davis Cupper Roberto Cid Subervi in the quarterfinals. Late in the first set, he became stricken with cramps, but was able to properly rehydrate and re-nourish himself and benefitting from Cid Subervi himself suffering from cramps and was able to advance when Cid Subervi retired due to his cramps after Lyeons won the second set. In the semifinals, Lyeons saved another match point, his fourth in the tournament, in his three-hour 18-minute semifinal win over Duarte Vale 7-5 in the third set.

Lyeons has only been playing pro tennis on the ITF World Tennis Tour since late July and this was his first career singles final.

In the doubles final, Peter Bertran of the Dominican Republic and Lorenzo Claverie of Italy defeating Americans Thomas Brown and Jake Bhangia 4-6, 7-6(3), 10-8.
WATCH the doubles ceremony and post-match interviews here: https://youtu.be/caidWS6AZpQ

An action-packed Friday at the Mardy Fish Children’s Foundation Tennis Championships featured local standouts taking on ATP-ranked pros, players cramping and twisting ankles to retire from matches, a resumption of play that lasted only four points, players attempting under-hand serves and lightning and rain once again postponing play.

Nico Godsick, the young American player and son of Mary Joe Fernandez and Tony Godsick, was forced to retire from his quarterfinal singles match with Duarte Vale with an ankle injury and also had to withdraw from the doubles event. Read Harvey Fialkov’s story detailing the circumstances here: https://www.tcpalm.com/story/sports/2023/04/28/mardy-fish-pro-circuit-quarterfinals-end-in-bizarre-scary-fashion/70165124007/

Fifty-three-year-old James Bragg, the third oldest man to play in a main draw event on the USTA Pro Circuit, took the court with partner Ching Wang of the Sea Oaks Club, with whom he won the Mardy Fish doubles “wild card” event last week, and trailed former world No. 211 Roberto Cid Subervi of the Dominican Republic and 1,637-ranked Sathi Reddy of India 5-1 before lighting and eventually a downpour cancelled play for the day. Watch their coin flip and pre-match photo here: https://youtu.be/h7lnZ8eNWD8

Their match will resume at 10 am on Saturday before the two singles semifinals between Dan Martin, formerly of Dartmouth now at the University of Miami, and Jacob Brumm, formerly of Baylor University (not before 11 am), and the second semifinal to follow between Duarte Vale of Portugal and the University of Florida’s 2021 NCAA Championship team, and Jaycer Lyeons of Texas.

Watch Randy Walker’s post-match interview with Dan Martin after his upset of No. 2 seed Andres Andrade here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6wnR2J7GG0

The full Saturday schedule can be found here: https://www.usta.com/content/dam/usta/2023-pro-circuit/20230424_verobeach_m15/OP.pdf

Lyeons, who received a last minute entry into this tournament as a wild card from the U.S. Tennis Association as the first American player out of the main draw, played two of the most bizarre matches of the tournament, both of which finished on Friday. First, he finished off a darkness-delayed upset of No. 1 seed Adrian Boitan of Romania, needing only four points to finish off a 6-4, 6-7(2), 7-6(2) win. The match was suspended Thursday night due to darkness with Lyeons leading 4-1 in the final-set tiebreaker. The match was halted on Court No. 2 earlier Thursday with the score knotted at 3-3 in the final set due to rain. The match was resumed after a three-hour delay at 7 pm on the Stadium Court, which dried faster than Court 2. The stadium lights at the Vero Beach Fitness  & Tennis Club are not bright enough for ITF World Tennis Tour standard and when the two players played a few points of the final-set tiebreaker just at sunset at 7:45 pm, visibility became challenging and, down 1-4, Boitan complained that it was too dark for him to play and since the match was not concluded by mutual consent in the not-officially legal lighting, the match was postponed for the day. Lyeons needed just four points to close out the win.

Later on Friday, Lyeons faced Cid Subervi in the quarterfinals and began to cramp late in the first set, even attempting underhand serves, a tactic that his opponent used early in the match himself when fit. Lyeons, however, endured and was able to control the cramps enough to play until Cid Subervi , playing his second full match of the day, began to cramp against late in the second set. Trailing 4-5 in the second set, Cid Subervi was not able to stand due to his cramps and pulled his chair from courtside on the court and sat on the court in the chair and was assessed four straight delay-of-game penalties to lose the game and the set. Cid Subervi was then not able to complete the match and retired. Cid Subervi was able to recover enough to take the doubles against Bragg and Ching later in the evening.

“King of the Hill” winner James Van Deinse and KOTH runner-up Tyler Rios were defeated in the first round of doubles to Peter Bertran of the Dominican Republic and Lorenzo Claverie of Italy 6-2, 6-1. Van Deinse and Rios received the annual wild card given to the KOTH winner and runner-up each year.