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Tennis: Alcantara, Mochizuki suffer semis upset in M15 Jakarta
Tennis: Alcantara, Mochizuki suffer semis upset in M15 Jakarta
Rosy Mina
Published Aug 13, 2022 12:00 AM PHT
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Updated Aug 13, 2022 01:10 AM PHT
Filipino doubles specialist Francis Casey Alcantara at the 31st Southeast Asian Games in Vietnam. Photo courtesy of the Vietnam Tennis Federation on Facebook.
No. 1 seeds Francis Casey Alcantara of the Philippines and Yuki Mochizuki of Japan fell to wildcards Nathan Anthony Barki and Christopher Rungkat of Indonesia, 6-3, 5-7, 6-10, in the semifinals of the M15 Jakarta tournament on Friday.
The $15,000 Indonesian tilt, also called the Amman Mineral International Tennis Championships, is part of the International Tennis Federation (ITF) Men’s World Tennis Tour.
After two service holds and two service breaks, both teams held serve to love to be at 3-3.
Alcantara and Mochizuki advanced to 5-3 by holding serve to love again and then converting a break point at 40-30.
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They wrapped up the first set quickly, 6-3, with another love service hold.
In the second set, they leveled at 4-4 after overcoming deuce in the second and fourth games, even saving a break point in the second game.
Barki and Rungkat got past deuce in the opening game as well as the seventh game, where they led at 40-0.
The set continued without a break of serve, until the Indonesians went on the brink of forcing a decider at 6-5 by zooming to 40-0 in the 12th game.
Alcantara and Mochizuki saved a break point with an ace to improve to 15-40, but Barki and Rungkat broke serve in their second opportunity, 7-5, to set a 10-point match tiebreak.
The Indonesian team opened the decider with an ace, 1-0, and the Filipino-Japanese tandem responded with two service holds to be at 2-1.
Barki and Rungkat proceeded to win the next four points, 5-2, and Alcantara and Mochizuki responded by claiming four consecutive points to regain the lead, 6-5.
The Indonesians regrouped by holding serve twice and securing two mini breaks, 9-6, to earn three match points.
They advanced to the final, 10-6, after 1 hour and 16 minutes of play at the Hotel Sultan Tennis Court, which has an outdoor hard surface.
En route to the semifinals, Alcantara and Mochizuki eliminated Indonesian wildcards Fitriadi M Rifqi and David Agung Susanto, 6-4, 7-5, in the quarterfinals.
In the first round, the Filipino-Japanese duo ousted Issei Okamura and Kento Takeuchi of Japan, 6-3, 6-4.
Alcantara, 30, also joined the singles qualifying draw where he lost to No. 5 seed Pol Wattanakul of Thailand in the first round, 6-7(7), 6-3, 13-15.
The Cagayan de Oro native, currently the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) Doubles World No. 466, has won two ITF doubles titles this year at the M15 Tay Ninh in Vietnam and M25 Cairo in Egypt.
In 2009, he made headlines for becoming the first Filipino grand slam champion after conquering the Australian Open boys’ doubles tournament as a 16-year-old together with Cheng-Peng Hsieh of Chinese Taipei.
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