It’s fourth time’s the charm for Francis Casey Alcantara of the Philippines as he secured the men’s doubles title with Colin Sinclair of Northern Mariana Islands at the M25 Cairo tournament in Egypt on Saturday.

Alcantara and Sinclair scored a 6-3, 6-3 win over Denis Klok and Ilya Rudiukov of Russia in just 55 minutes at Court 2 of the Al-Solaimaneyah Tennis Center.

It was the fourth men’s doubles final of Alcantara in the 2022 Egypt Futures circuit, following his and Sinclair’s loss to Rudiukov and Lorenzo Joaquin Rodriguez of Argentina at the M15 Cairo last week.

Alcantara, 30, was also a runner-up in the first and fourth legs of the M15 Sharm ElSheikh last month together with Kelsey Stevenson of Canada.

With windy conditions during Saturday afternoon’s final, Alcantara and Sinclair began the match with an ace and pulled away with a 2-0 lead.

Klok and Rudiukov replied with a break of serve, then caught up to be at 3-3.

Alcantara and Sinclair regained the lead then broke serve, courtesy of a forehand error from the Russians, to serve for the set at 5-3.

A forehand volley winner from Alcantara sealed the first set, 6-3, in 24 minutes.

Service holds kicked off the second set, followed by Klok and Rudiukov saving a break point in the third game.

Alcantara and Sinclair also saved a break point in the next game to be at 2-2, thanks to a forehand volley winner from Sinclair.

They proceeded to break serve in the fifth game on their second opportunity to lead at 3-2, and saved three break points in the following game to be at 4-2.

Alcantara and Sinclair maintained their lead at 5-3 after the Filipino hit a forehand passing shot winner.

Down 15-40 in the ninth game, Alcantara and Sinclair leveled at 40-40 after Klok and Rudiukov committed a double fault and Alcantara hit a backhand volley winner.

They accomplished the break of serve to claim victory, 6-3, with a total of two aces and zero double faults compared to the Russians’ two aces and five double faults.

Going into the final, Alcantara and Sinclair posted straight-sets wins over Max Benaim of Great Britain and Alejandro Turriziani Alvarez of Spain in the first round (6-3, 6-2), Andrey Chepelev and Vladislav Ivanov of Russia in the quarterfinals (6-3, 6-4), and Marco Miceli of Italy and Ignacio Monzon of Argentina in the semifinals (6-1, 6-2).

Alcantara, the ATP Doubles World No. 569 with a career high of No. 257 in 2018, is the first Filipino to win a grand slam after bagging the 2009 Australian Open junior boys’ doubles title with Cheng-Peng Hsieh of Chinese Taipei.

In 2019, the Cagayan de Oro native won the Southeast Asian Games men’s doubles gold along with Jeson Patrombon.

• Tennis: Alcantara, Sinclair lose in M15 Cairo doubles final
• Alcantara goes easy amid tennis pressure

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