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Tennis: Alcantara ousted in Jakarta doubles semifinals
Tennis: Alcantara ousted in Jakarta doubles semifinals
Rosy Mina
Published Jan 28, 2023 11:38 PM PHT
Francis Casey Alcantara of the Philippines. Photo courtesy of Francis Casey Alcantara on Instagram.
No. 1 seeds Francis Casey Alcantara of the Philippines and Ray Ho of Chinese Taipei suffered a 4-6, 2-6 upset in the semifinals of the M15 Jakarta tournament in Indonesia.
They fell to the unseeded Japanese tandem of Keisuke Saitoh and Naoki Tajima in 59 minutes at the Sultan Hotel Tennis Court on Friday.
At 3-3, Alcantara and Ho were broken after leading at 40-15. In the following game, they failed to convert a break point opportunity.
The first set concluded in favor of Saitoh and Tajima, 6-4, after they committed a love service hold.
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In the second set, Alcantara and Ho trailed at 2-4 after failing to convert two break points in the sixth game.
They were broken in the following game after the Japanese duo caught up to deuce.
Saitoh and Tajima then served out the match, 6-2, to reach the final versus No. 2 seeds Rithvik Choudar Bollipalli and Niki Kaliyanda Poonacha of India.
The Indians overpowered the Japanese in the final of the $15,000 ITF Men's World Tennis Tour event on Saturday, 6-1, 6-3.
The M15 Jakarta campaign of Alcantara and Ho began with a 7-6(5), 6-4 win over Moerani Bouzige of Australia and Wishaya Trongcharoenchaikul of Thailand.
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They went on to beat Indians Ishaque Eqbal and Karan Singh, 6-2, 6-2, in the quarterfinals.
Alcantara, 30, is the ATP Doubles World No. 346 with a career-high ranking of World No. 257.
He kicked off the 2023 season on the ATP Challenger Tour in Thailand, where he went out in the first round of the doubles events at the Nonthaburi 1 with Yu Hsiou Hsu of Chinese Taipei and Nonthaburi 3 with Hiroki Moriya of Japan.
Alcantara, a five-time ITF men’s doubles champion, won the Southeast Asian Games men’s doubles gold in 2019 and the Australian Open junior boys’ doubles title in 2009.
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