MANILA – Francis Casey Alcantara of the Philippines and Christopher Rungkat of Indonesia lost in the Bangkok Open final on Saturday against No. 3 seeds Benjamin Lock of Zimbabwe and Yuta Shimizu of Japan, 1-6, 3-6, in Nonthaburi, Thailand.

It was the first Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) Challenger Tour final of the 30-year-old Alcantara, who has four doubles titles on the International Tennis Federation (ITF) Men’s World Tennis Tour.

Alcantara and Rungkat were broken thrice in the first set, holding serve only once after overcoming deuce in the third game.

Lock and Shimizu secured love service holds to be at 3-1 and then at 5-1, after which they earned four set points in the seventh game.

The Filipino-Indonesian tandem saved a break point by forcing a backhand volley error, and the Zimbabwean-Japanese duo fought back with a backhand return-of-serve winner to claim the first set, 6-1.

Two crucial backhand winners by Alcantara caused him and Rungkat to take a 2-0 lead in the second set.

The Filipino doubles specialist hit a backhand return-of-serve shot down the line to break in the opening game.

Down 15-40 in the second game, Rungkat served an ace to save a break point. At 40-40, Alcantara let out a backhand volley winner to clinch the second game.

Lock and Shimizu caught up and leveled at 3-3 before winning the next three games to bag the championship, 6-3, with the prize of $2,000. Alcantara and Rungkat settled for the finalists’ prize of $1,160.

In the eighth game, Lock and Shimizu accomplished a love service break with a backhand volley winner in order to serve for the match.

At 30-30, a netted forehand from Rungkat and Alcantara gave Lock and Shimizu a match point, and a long forehand return-of-serve sealed the final in favor of the Zimbabwean and Japanese.

On their way to the final, Alcantara and Rungkat upset No. 2 seeds Ray Ho of Chinese Taipei and Grigoriy Lomakin of Kazakhstan, 7-5, 4-6, 10-5, in the first round.

They got past Sergey Fomin and Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan, 7-6(8), 6-2, in the quarterfinals, and overcame Anirudh Chandrasekar and Vishnu Vardhan of India, 2-6, 6-4, 11-9, in the semifinals.

Just last month, Alcantara and Rungkat faced off in the doubles semifinals of the M15 Jakarta, an Indonesian ITF tournament.

Rungkat and countryman Nathan Anthony Barki won over Alcantara and Yuki Mochizuki of Japan in three sets.

Alcantara, the ATP Doubles World No. 445, has won two ITF doubles titles this season at the M25 Cairo in Egypt and M15 Tay Ninh in Vietnam.

• Tennis: Alcantara, Mochizuki suffer semis upset in M15 Jakarta
• Tennis: Alcantara, Ly bag M15 Tay Ninh doubles title in Vietnam

RELATED VIDEO

Watch more News on iWantTFC