Alcantara reaches doubles semis in China tennis tourney

MANILA: Filipino Francis Casey Alcantara and Chinese Fajing Sun defeated Philip Henning and Kris van Wyk, 6-1, 4-6, 10-8, on Monday to reach the men's doubles semifinals of the Jinan Challenger 50 event in China. They will face Korean Yun Seong Chung and Japanese Yuta Shimizu, who prevailed over Chinese Taipei's Tsung-Hao Huang and Tung-Lin Wu, 7-6 (2), 3-6, 10-3, in the quarterfinals. Last week, Alcantara and local Ray Ho lost to Indian Sai Karteek Reddy Ganta and Thai Wishaya Trongcharoenchaikul, 6-7 (8), 3-6, in the semifinals in the second leg of the M25 event in Chinese Taipei. In the first leg, Alcantara and Vietnamese Nam Hoang Ly were eliminated in the first round by Ying-Ze Chen of Chinese Taipei and Yun Seong Chung of South Korea, 4-6, 2-6. In Thailand, Alcantara and Thailand's Maximus Jones swept the two-leg M15 Nakhon Si Thammarat tournament. He also triumphed in Chennai, India with Indonesian Christopher Rungkat. Alcantara has competed in 21 tournaments this year. He and Sun were runners-up at the Nonthaburi 2 Challenger in Thailand, losing to Manuel Guinard and Gregoire Jacq of France, 4-6, 6-7 (6). Alcantara reached the semifinals in Anning, China (with Rungkat); Bengaluru, India (with Japanese Kaichi Unchida); and Nonthaburi Challenger 1 (with Uchida). The 32-year-old pride of Cagayan de Oro City, Misamis Oriental is currently No. 218 in the world's doubles rankings. He achieved a career-high No. 162 last February. Source: Philippines News Agency