Top seeds Francis Casey Alcantara of the Philippines and Pruchya Isaro of Thailand emerged on top of the M25 Tay Ninh doubles tournament in Vietnam with a come-from-behind win in the final on Saturday.

Alcantara and Isaro edged out No. 4 seeds Yu Hsiou Hsu of Chinese Taipei and Wishaya Trongcharoenchaikul of Thailand, 2-6, 6-3, 10-3, at Court 4 of the Hai Dang Tennis Club.

The M25 Tay Ninh is Alcantara’s fifth title on the International Tennis Federation (ITF) Men’s World Tennis Tour.

The 30-year-old Filipino doubles specialist won the M15 Tay Ninh with Vietnamese Nam Hoang Ly in June and the M25 Cairo with Colin Sinclair of Northern Mariana Islands in April.

Last year, Alcantara conquered the M25 Harlingen with Mark Whitehouse of Great Britain and M25 Calabasas with Raymond Sarmiento of the United States.

As Alcantara was gunning for his third title of the season at the M25 Tay Ninh, he and Isaro had a sluggish start despite gaining a break point in the first and seventh games.

The Filipino and Thai trailed at 1-4 and then at 2-5, and were broken in the eighth game as they were serving to stay in the first set.

After saving a set point, they yielded the first set to Hsu and Trongcharoenchaikul, 2-6, after Alcantara committed a double fault.

Alcantara and Isaro regrouped in the second set, where they easily took a 3-1 lead courtesy of a forehand down-the-line winner by Alcantara.

Both teams continued to hold serve until Alcantara and Isaro broke in the ninth game to force a match tiebreak, 6-3, following their opponents’ netted forehand.

Alcantara and Isaro took control of the 10-point decider by advancing to 3-1 after forcing a forehand service return error.

At 3-2, they swept the remainder of the tiebreak with gutsy winners, including an Alcantara forehand crosscourt shot that brought them to 4-2, and an Isaro backhand shot that widened their lead to 6-2.

At 8-3, Alcantara made sure to clinch the victory, following his back-to-back runner-up finishes last month at the Bangkok Open in Thailand with Indonesian Christopher Rungkat.

The Cagayan de Oro native and 2019 SEA Games men’s doubles gold medalist blasted two aces – down the T and then out wide – for the victory, 10-3.

On their way to the final, Alcantara and Isaro overcame Tomohiro Masabayashi of Japan and Nitin Kumar Sinha of India in the first round, 5-7, 6-3, 10-4.

They eliminated Tommaso Compagnucci of Italy and Coleman Wong of Hong Kong in the quarterfinals, 6-0, 6-3, and No. 3 seeds Blake Bayldon of Australia and Ajeet Rai of New Zealand, 6-4, 6-2.

Alcantara, the first Filipino grand slam champion at the 2009 Australian Open boys’ doubles event, is currently the ATP Doubles World No. 326.

Meanwhile, another Filipino who competed at the M25 Tay Ninh was 17-year-old Alejandro Jacinto Barrientos, who lost in the qualifying opening round to No. 11 seed Gourav Gulia of India, 3-6, 4-6.

On the ATP Tour this week, Treat Huey participated in the ATP 250 Eugene Korea Open Tennis Championships in Seoul, where he lost in the first round of singles qualifying.

Huey and Hans Hach Verdugo of Mexico were then defeated in the opening round by South Korean wildcards Hyeon Chung and Soonwoo Kwon, 6-2, 2-6, 8-10.

As for the ATP Challenger Tour, Ruben Gonzales and Alexis Galarneau of Canada reached the doubles quarterfinals of the Charleston Challenger after ousting Abraham Asaba of Ghana and Aidan Mayo of the U.S. in the first round, 7-6(6), 6-2.

They were supposed to challenge Australian No. 2 seeds Luke Saville and Andrew Harris in the quarters, but the ATP Challenger Tour announced the tournament’s cancellation “due to the expected impact of Hurricane Ian on South Carolina.”

• Tennis: Alcantara, Rungkat falter in Bangkok Open final
• Tennis: Alcantara, Ly bag M15 Tay Ninh doubles title in Vietnam

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