Alcantara retains Phinma net crown

MANILA, Philippines - Francis Casey Alcantara overcame a first-set scare from Yoshihito Nishioka and went on to blank his Japanese rival in the second to complete a 7-5, 6-0 victory and retain his boys’ singles crown in the Phinma International Juniors Week 1 at the Rizal Memorial Tennis Center yesterday.

Everything he did right in toppling his previous rivals in straight-set fashion, Alcantara did again against Nishioka although he had to go through some anxious moments in the opening set before thwarting the Japanese qualifier’s upset bid.

“I relaxed a bit in the first set. I thought it’s going to be all easy balls but it got really tight,” said Alcantara, ranked 56th in the world who clinched 40 ITF points for his feat.

“I recovered when I mixed my shots. He really hits his shots strong so I decided to tire him out by keeping him running in the second set,” said Alcantara, who also beat Japanese Kazuma Kawachi, 6-2, 6-3, in the semis of the event sponsored by Phinma Group of Companies and backed by Tecnifibre Balls, Powerade, Viva Mineral Water, Century Park Hotel and the Philippine Sports Commission.

Nishioka retaliated with crisp backhands in the opening set to keep the match close then surged ahead at 5-4. But Alcantara fought back with a barrage of crosscourt shots to baffle Nishioka and win the next three games.

It was an all-Alcantara show from there as he frolicked to victory with the Japanese losing steam in the second and making unforced errors in the face of the Filipino’s strong return shots.

He goes for back-to-back starting tomorrow in Phinma International Juniors Week 2, the final leg of a four-week championship featuring some of the world’s top junior netters and the country’s leading and rising stars.

Seventh seed Tian Ran of China held off Belgium’s Justine de Sutter, 6-2, 7-6(2), to bag the girls’ singles crown then teamed up with Lin Zhu to beat Vietnam’s Huynh Phuong Dai and Katharina Lehnert of Germany, 6-2, 6-1, to cop the doubles diadem.

Japanese Soichiro Moritani and Kaichi Uchida outsteadied Jack Schipanski of Austria and Jun Nan Tao of China, 6-7(5), 6-3, (12-10), to clinch the boys’ doubles plum.