Alcantara, Thai doubles runner-up at Zhangjiagang Challenger

MANILA: Japan's Kaichi Uchida and Takeru Yuzuki beat Filipino Francis Casey Alcantara and Thai Pruchaya Isaro, 6-1, 7-5, in the men's doubles final of the Zhangjiagang International Challenger in China on Saturday. Alcantara and Isaro defeated Hsiou Hsu of Chinese Taipei and Fajing Sun of China, 6-4, 6-3, in the Final Four. Uchida and Yuzuki, on the other hand, pulled off a 7-6 (9) , 6-3, win over Mikalai Haliak of Belarus and Lukas Pokorny of Slovak Republic. "Our opponents played better and they deserved the win," the 32-year-old Alcantara said in an interview on Sunday. "But overall, I am still very happy in reaching my seventh ATP Challenger final," the veteran of the Davis Cup, Southeast Asian Games and Asian Games added. Alcantara's next tournament is the Road to the Rolex Shanghai Masters starting on Monday. "It's a tough field. I hope we can play well," Alcantara said. Alcantara and Isaro also reached the semifinal at the Bengaluru Challenger in India and the Nonthaburi Challenger 1 in Thailand . After Shanghai, Alcantara will join the Guangzhou Huangpu International Open on Sept. 9 to 15. He reached the Jinan Challenger semifinal with Fajing Sun last week, but they lost to Korean Yun Seong Chung and Japanese Yuta Shimizu, 6-7 (4), 4-6. The pride of Cagayan de Oro City has won three titles this year -- one with Indonesian Christopher Rungkat in Chennai, India, and two with Thai Maximus Jones in Nakhon Si Thammarat, Thailand. Source: Philippines News Agency