Alcantara eyes semis berth in Bengaluru Tennis Open doubles

MANILA, Philippines -- Filipino tennister Francis Alcantara will try to advance into the semifinals of the Bengaluru Tennis Open doubles’ play in India.

Alcantara and his partner, Japanese Kaichi Uchida, will be facing the Australian pair of Adam Walton and Tristan Schoolkate on Thursday afternoon.

The Aussie duo came out of the tournament firing on all cylinders, sweeping the top-seeded pair of South Korea’s Chung Yun-Seong and France’s Dan Added, on Wednesday.

The two surprisingly made quick work of the top-seeded pair, 6-3, 6-3.

Alcantara and Uchida, on the other hand, crashed into the quarterfinals of the Indian tourney after defeating South Korea’s Hong Seong-chan and Hong Kong’s Chak Lam Coleman Wong on Tuesday, 6-1, 1-6, 10-5.

The Alcantara-Uchida duo were earlier booted out of the Chennai Open ATP after losing to Taiwan’s Yu Hsiou Hsu and India’s Arjun Kadhe.

Schoolkate is currently ranked 170th in doubles’ play, while Walton is rated 157th.

Alcantara slightly dipped in the world doubles’ rankings to 171th, from his career-high 169th last week.