Alcantara, partner reach ITF junior tennis finals

MANILA, Philippines - Francis Casey Alcantara, foiled in his bid in the singles, teamed up with Swede Daniel Berta to beat Irish Sam Barry and Kiwi Sebastian Lavie, 6-1, 6-2, and barge into the finals of the 20th Mitsubishi ITF Juniors Championships at the Rizal Tennis Center yesterday.

The win set the second seeded pair of Alcantara, 17, and Berta against the winner of the other semis duel between No. 1 Huang Liang Chi of Chinese Taipei-Dominik Schulz of Germany and No. 4 Ben-Riki McClachlan.

The Cagayan de Oro City native teamed up with Chinese Taipei’s Hiseh Cheng Peng in ruling the Australian Juniors Open last January and then Berta in last week’s Grade 1 meet in Malaysia.

Alcantara also finished second in a Grade 1 event in Thailand two weeks ago with Huang as teammate.

Meanwhile, seventh seed Polina Leykina of Russia shocked top pick Timea Babos of Hungary, 6-2, 7-5, to reach the ladies singles final.

Leykina disputes the title with compatriot No. 13 Ekaterina Nikitina, who booted out unseeded Tamara Curovic of Serbia, 7-5, 6-2.

Berta, the boys’ singles No. 6, also upended No. 3 Schulz, 6-3, 6-3, to close in on a possible tennis double.

The talented Swede takes on No. 5 Riki McLachlan of New Zealand, a round-of-16 finisher in the Australian Juniors Open who trounced Alcantara conqueror Matteo Civarolo of Italy, 7-5, 7-5. – Joey Villar