State Tennis: Shorecrest's Litsky adds to title haul
Source/Author: John C. Cotey, Tampa Bay Times Correspondent
April 16, 2015
Shorecrest's Peter Litsky was ready for a long match.
His opponent wasn't. They rarely are.
Playing with precision and near perfection, Litsky capped an impressive season with the Class A overall singles championship, beating Pensacola Catholic's Christopher Ephron 6-3, 6-1 Wednesday morning at Red Bug Park.
Litsky won four matches this week, including three in the individual tournament bracket against other district champions at No. 1 singles whose teams did not advance. He won each of those in straight sets.
His last obstacle was Ephron, who beat the top two seeds at No. 1 to win the team singles title but had to fight through a couple of three-set victories in doubles in Tuesday's team competition.
Litsky was aware of his advantage from the outset, looking to run his opponent around the court and keep points going long enough to tire Ephron out quickly.
"In the beginning it was real close," Litsky said. "He's a really good player. I had the edge, he was in the team tournament, playing singles and doubles, and I had three straight-set matches over the span of two days, so he was a little bit more worn out.
"So I knew to take control every point and keep him on the run. It helped me get out to lead pretty early and from there I just built momentum. In the second set, he started to look a little worn out. By the end it was kind of obvious he was pretty tired."
Litsky, a junior, did not lose a single set this season, and never lost more than four games in any set. Ranked No. 3 in the state in the 16s and No. 8 in the 18s, Litsky celebrated his win with friends and family under the trees at Red Bug Park, then did exactly what you might expect a recent Brown University commitment to do.
He headed back to St. Petersburg. "If I get back by noon, I can make my last two or three classes," he said.
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