Alcantara succumbs to Spaniard

MANILA, Philippines –  Francis Casey Alcantara ran into a higher-ranked and more experienced foe and absorbed a 3-6, 3-6 defeat at the hands of top seed Enrique Lopez-Perez of Spain yesterday in the 34th Philippine Columbian Association (PCA) Open-Cebuana Lhuillier ITF Men’s Futures 2 at the PCA’s Plaza Dilao clay courts in Paco, Manila.

Alcantara, who made it through the quarterfinals with a 7-6 (1), 6-1 victory over Chinese Taipei’s Liang Wen Chun, found the power-hitting Lopez-Perez too much to handle and bowed out in the tournament supported by Cebuana Lhuillier, Puma, Dunlop, The Philippine STAR, Head, Babolat, Compass/IMOSTI and Sarangani Rep. Manny Pacquiao.

“I was satisfied with my game. He’s just more experienced and hits it really harder,” said Alcantara.

“Just making it here is already a good finish for me,” said Alcantara, winner over fifth seed Vinayak Sharma Kaza of India in the early round of this event also supported by Whirlpool/Fujidenzo, Broadway Motor Sales Corp., Coca-Cola Femsa Philippines, Tyrecorp Inc., Pearl Garden Hotel, Metro Global Holdings Corp.n, Avida, PVL Restaurant, Mary Grace Foods, Inc., Seno Hardware and Wire Rope Corp.  

The win sent Lopez-Perez to the semifinals against No. 4 Arata Onozawa of Japan, a 6-1, 6-1 winner over Kunal Anand of India.

The other semis pairing pits No. 3 Kento Takeuchi of Japan, who turned back No. 8 Yu Cheng Yu of Chinese Taipei, 6-4, 7-6 (5), and the winner of the duel between No. 6 Makoto Ochi and Katsuki Nagao both of Japan.

Still, Alcantara remained in the running in the doubles as he and partner Johnny Arcilla barged into the semis with a 6-4, 6-2 triumph over countrymen PJ Tierro and Elbert Anasta Thursday.

The Alcantara-Arcilla tandem was playing the Japanese pair of Soichiro Moritani and Masato Shiga at press time.

“I’m glad to see our players come up with better performances this week. They have shown that they can be at par with some of the world-ranked players. I see a great future for Philippine tennis with the emergence of young players like Niño, Jeson and AJ and we will continue to support them,” said Cebuana Lhuillier president and CEO Jean Henri Lhuillier.