Casey does it, reaches semis

Francis Casey Alcantara continued to defy the odds with his grit and spunk as he slew the big-hitting third seed Mark Verryth of Australia, 7-5, 6-0, yesterday to storm into the semifinal round of the 12th Mitsubishi International Junior Tennis Championships at the Rizal Tennis Center.

Sixteen-year-old Alcantara rode on the momentum of his stirring come-from-behind win over Aussie Matthew James, 3-6, 6-4, 7-5, Thursday as he defused Verryth’s powerful serves while using his solid baseline game to near-perfection to complete the straight-set victory.

“I knew that if I could handle his strong serves, I’ll have a chance of beating him. I did that in this game,” said the Cagayan de Oro City native, ranked 12th here and ranked 114th in the world.

The victory, fashioned out in 1hour,  21 minutes, set up Alcantara against the second-ranked Borut Puc of Slovenia. Puc advanced by trouncing sixth pick Hiroki Moriya of Japan, 6-4, 7-5.

Alcantara, who drew a first round bye before scraping past Polish Maciej Rajski, 6-3, 2-6, 6-3, in the second round, knows he’ll be up against a tougher player in Puc.

“I haven’t played him (Puc) but he also hits shots and serves strong. I expect a tougher game,” said Alcantara.

Alcantara wrapped up the emotional win by drilling in a shot with his back turned against his rival and straight between his legs and into Verryth, who had to scamper for the ball before scooping up a return shot that went straight into the net, drawing cheers from the small but appreciative hometown crowd.

Alcantara trailed in the early going as Verryth, one of the tallest competitors here at 6-5, cashed in on his big serves to seize a 3-1, 4-3, 5-4 lead in the opening set.

But Alcantara never got discouraged and stayed focused and got back into the game with superb shots that saw him take the next three games and the set.

The first set meltdown seemed to have frustrated Verryth, who later hit his serve long and his shots short and wide, enabling the resilient Filipino to sweep all six games in the second set.

“I was more patient in this game,” said Alcantara, who also crawled his way out of trouble against the solid-hitting James.

Like Puc, top seed Andrew Thomas of Australian also advanced with a 6-4, 6-3 win of Alexander Lobkov of Russia.

In the girls’ side, No. 10 Timea Babos of Hungary humbled No. 2 Elena Chernyakova of Russia, 6-0, 6-0, to arrange a semis showdown with Nadiya Kichenok of Ukraine, who edged Kanyapat Narattana of Thailand, 6-4, 4-6, 6-3.

Top seed Noppawan Lertcheewakarn of Thailand likewise moved to the next round after she slammed Alexandra Kolesnichenko of Uzbekistan, 6-0, 6-3, to forge a duel with No. 4 Yang Zi-jun of Hong Kong, a 0-6, 6-1, 6-2 winner over No. 5 Reka-Luca Jani of Hungary.