EDWARDSVILLE - Nic Meister got the phone call on Sunday night to be ready to play in the opening round of the Edwardsville Futures tennis tournament Presented by The EGHM Foundation.

By Monday night, Meister had advanced to the next round as the tournament, celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, returned after missing the 2020 edition because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Meister came from behind to defeat 10th seed Nicholas Bybel 3-6, 6-1, 10-4 to advance in the qualifying rounds as the tournament got underway Monday at the Edwardsville Tennis Center.

Meister, who plays collegiately at the University of Illinois, dropped the first set but came back strong in the second set to level the match before taking the super tiebreak in the third set to advance. He'll meet up with seventh-seed Chad Kissell, who also came from behind to take 11 of 13 games after trailing in the first set 5-2 to defeat John Bernard 7-6 (7-1 in the tiebreak), 6-1 to advance.

Futures veteran Jibril Nettles, who reached the finals of last weekend's Pro Wildcard Challenge to qualify, defeated 13th-seeded Axel Nefve 3-6, 6-3, 10-3, while another longtime Futures player, St. Louis native Carson Haskins, lost to up-and-coming teen player Ethan Quinn 7-5, 6-2. Haskins, the 12th seed, has been out after hip surgery, and is still recovering. Quinn recently played at the junior French Open and junior Wimbledon, is hoping to do well at the Futures this week.

The entire opening day results, all in the singles, saw 16th seed Toby Boyer defeat Brian Battastone 6-7 (5-7 in the tiebreak), 6-3, 10-5, 15th seeded Siphosothando Montsi of South Africa won over Nils Ellefsen of Norway 6-2, 6-2, third seed Kyle Seelig won over India's Parth Aggarwal 7-5, 6-2, Quinn winning over Haskins, fourth seed Reese Stalder defeating Mirmaksud Ismoilov of Uzebekistan 6-0, 6-0, ninth-seed Jordan Parker won over Sachin Kolachana of India 6-2, 6-0 and fifth seed Kalman Boyd won over Harrison Hines 6-0, 6-0.

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In other matches, Nettles won over Nefve, sixth-seeded William Griffith defeated Alexander Richards 6-1, 6-1, 14th seed Joshua Howard-Tripp of South Africa defeated Tennyson Whiting 6-2, 6-1, it was Kissel winning over Bernard, Meister upsetting Bybel, eighth-seed Blaise Bicknell from Jamaica defeating Micah Braswell 7-6 (7-1 in the tiebreak), 2-6, 10-6 and Preston Brown won over 11th seed Nicaise Muamba of Canada 6-3, 6-3.

The tournament's second day starts at 9 a.m. at the Tennis Center, with feature matches being Kissell going against Meister, Montsi facing second seed Alfredo Perez, Boyd playing against Nettles and Stalder meeting up with ninth-seed Jordan Parker. In matches slated to start at 10:30 a.m., Boyer faces top-seeded Ryan Shane and Seelig going against Quinn. The doubles tournament also gets underway at approximately 11:30 a.m., with American pair Jack Vance and Whiting meeting third-seeded Tristan Schoolkate and Dane Sweeny of Australia, and at approximately 12:30 p.m., top seeds Igor Marcondes of Brazil and Evan Zhu of the United States meeting Muamba and Parker.

The doubles finals are set for Friday night, with the singles finals going off on Sunday morning. Both will be televised live on Riverbender.com and Edglentoday.com.

Dan Brannan also contributed to this story.

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