Francis Casey Alcantara in action (Contributed photo)
MANILA – No. 3 seeds Francis Casey Alcantara of the Philippines and Coleman Wong of Hong Kong won their opening-round match in the men's doubles category of the Medco Energi International Tennis Championships Week 1 at the Sultan Hotel outdoor hard court in Jakarta, Indonesia on Thursday.
Alcantara and Wong defeated Mitsuki Wei Kang Leong of Malaysia and Linh Giang Trinh of Vietnam, 6-2, 6-1, to secure a quarterfinal berth in the USD25,000 event.
Their next opponents are Nam Hoang Ly and Minh Tuan Pham of Vietnam, 6-4, 6-4 winners over M Rifqi Fitriadi and Gunawan Giang Trismuwantara.
Top seeds Thomas Fancutt and Brandon Walkin of Australia also marched into the next round after beating compatriots Thomas Pavlekovich Smith and Matthew Woerndle, 6-2, 7-6 (6).
Fancutt and Walkin will be up against Ulsung Park and Ji Hoon Son of South Korea, who prevailed over Ren Nakamura of Japan and Sharmil Shah of India, 6-2, 6-2.
In other matches, No. 2 seeds Fajing Sun of China and Seita Watanabe of Japan, and fourth seeds Nathan Anthony Barki and Christopher Rungkat of Indonesia scored contrasting wins to reach the quarterfinal round.
Sun and Watanabe coasted to a 6-1, 6-1 victory over Lucky Candra Kurniawan and Tega Abdi Satrio Wibowo of Indonesia.
They will face Congsup Congcar of Thailand and Arthur Weber of France, who conquered Arynkgo Mesakh and Aditya Hari Sasongko of Indonesia, 6-2, 6-1.
Barki and Rungkat survived Krittin Koaykul and Jirat Navasirisomboon, 7-6 (2), 7-6 (4), to advance against Yuttana Charoenphon and Kasidit Samrej of Thailand.
Charoenphon and Samrej rallied past Tomohiro Masabayashi and Renta Tokuda of Japan, 2-6, 6-3, 11-9.
Alcantara is currently No. 286 based on the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) rankings released on October 24. His career-best was No. 257 in 2018.
The 30-year-old player from Cagayan de Oro City bagged his third doubles with Pruchya Isaro of Thailand at the Hai Dang Cup Week 1 in Tay Ninh City, Vietnam three weeks ago. His other titles this year were the Hai Dang Cup Week 2 with Nam Hoang Ly and the ITF World Tennis Tour event in Cairo, Egypt with Colin Sinclair of Northern Marianas Island.
Last month, Alcantara and Rungkat were runners-up in two USD50,000 events of the ATP Tour Challenger in Nonthaburi City, Thailand. They reached the semifinals of the 2016 ITF Futures 2, a USD10,000 event held in Hong Kong.
Alcantara is expected to lead the Philippine tennis team in the Cambodia Southeast Asian (SEA) Games and Hangzhou Asian Games next year.
In the 2019 Manila SEA Games, he and Jeson Patrombon won the doubles title.
Alcantara became a member of the Davis Cup team in 2005. He was the first Filipino junior Grand Slam champion, achieving the feat when he won the Australian Open doubles title with Cheng-Peng Hsieh of Chinese Taipei in 2009, the same year he reached his highest ranking of world No. 14. (PNA)
