Alcantara unseats 8th-seeded Briton
The
The 16-year-old Alcantara, seeded 12th here and ranked 114th in the world, recovered from a tentative start as he came through with a variety of shots in the last two sets, neutralizing James’ big-serve and bouncing back from 2-4 and 0-4 deficits in the second and third frames, respectively.
After that big comeback in the second set, the Cagayan de Oro native sustained his form and unleashed winners as James, the eighth seed and world No. 77, suffered cramps late in the deciding set.
“I thought I’m finished already, but I hung in there,” said Alcantara in Filipino.
It was the second straight three-set victory by Alcantara, who drew a first round bye Tuesday, after scrambling past Polish Maciej Rajski, 6-3, 2-6, 6-3, in the second round Wednesday.
The tough win also kept Alcantara, a first round loser here last year, on track of his bid to become the first Filipino to win the tournament once ruled by former World No. 1 Leyton Hewitt of
Next assignment for Alcantara is third pick Mark Verryth of Australia, a 6-5 power-hitter who overpowered Sudanwa Sitaram of Thailand, 6-1, 7-6 (1), with his serve-and-volley game.
Alcantara knows he’s up for a tougher challenge.
“I haven’t played him (Verryth) yet but I saw him play a bit and he’s very powerful player,” said Alcantara.
Top seeds Andrew Thomas of Australia and Borut Puc of Slovenia escaped the rash of upsets in the day as they posted wins over Australians James Duckworth, 6-3, 6-4, and Stephen Hoh, 6-3, 7-6 (6), respectively.
Also advancing were No. 7 Alexander Lobkov of
Lobkov downed No. 9 Niki Moser of
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