MANILA, Philippines -- Francis Casey Alcantara showed why he's a doubles sepcialist as he and Johnny Arcilla beat the top-seeded Japanese duo of Katsuki Nagao and Hiromasa Oku, 6-2, 6-2, Sunday to clinch the crown in the 34th Philippine Columbian Association Open-Cebuana Lhuillier ITF Men’s Futures 2 at the PCA’s Plaza Dilao clay courts in Paco, Manila.
Alcantara, a former doubles champion in the Australian Juniors Open during his teens, played inspired in most of the one-sided match as he and Arcilla, who made it to the event as a wildcard duo, just rode roughshod of their fancied foes to secure their first international crown as a pair.
It was, however, the winning on local soil that mattered most.
"I'm just happy to win in front of my countrymen," said the 23-year-old Alcantara, who played college tennis at US NCAA Division 1 Pepperdine.
For the 35-year-old Arcilla, for his part, considered the win as one of its biggest in his storied career in the tournament supported by Cebuana Lhuillier, Puma, Dunlop, The Philippine STAR, Head, Babolat, Compass/IMOSTI and Sarangani Rep. Manny Pacquiao.
"This is special because it's my first doubles title in the ITF," he said.
For their feat, Alcantara and Arcilla took home $930 in 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.
Alcantara and Arcilla made it through by beating Jeson Patrombon and Cheng Yu Yu of Chinese Taipei, 6-2, 6-2, Elbert Anasta and PJ Tierro, 6-4, 6-2, and Japan's Soichiro Moritani and Masato Shiga, 6-1, 6-3.
It was a solid week for Alcantara, in particular, who made it until the quarterfinal round of the singles section.
In single's action, top seed Enrique Lopez-Perez of Spain and No. 3 Kento Takeuchi of Japan pulled off a pair of pulsating three-set victories to forge an interesting title duel set at 10 a.m. today.
Lopez-Perez downed No. 4 Arata Onozawa, 6-4, 3-6, 6-1, while Takeuchi rallied from a first set defeat to overcome compatriot No. 6 Makoto Ochi, 2-6, 6-0, 6-1.