MANILA — Filipino tennis player Francis Casey Alcantara has advanced to the semifinals of the men’s doubles at the ATP Challenger in Zhangjiagang, China.
Alcantara and his partner, Pruchaya Isaro of Thailand, secured their spot in the semifinals with a victory over New Zealand’s Ajeet Rai and Finn Reynolds, 6-3, 6-7 (7), 10-6, on Thursday.
In the semifinals, Alcantara and Isaro will face the duo of Yu Hsiou Hsu from Chinese Taipei and Fajing Sun from China, who triumphed over Russia’s Evgeny Donsky and Evgeny Karlovskiy with scores of 7-6 (0), 6-4.
“We played a great match and are thrilled with the win, especially after being down 3-5 in the super tiebreak,” Alcantara said.
Alcantara’s recent semifinal appearance follows his feat at the Jinan Challenger tourney, where he and Sun were defeated by Korean Yun Seong Chung and Japanese Yuta Shimizu.
Alcantara, who previously won an ITF event in New Delhi, India, last year with Isaro, is determined to perform well. He recently claimed two titles in Thailand with local partner Maximus Jones and won his first title of the year in Chennai, India, with Indonesian Christopher Rungkat.
Currently ranked No. 214 in the world’s doubles rankings, Alcantara reached a career-high No. 162 earlier this year.
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