MANILA, Philippines - Francis Casey Alcantara took a step closer to retaining the championship in the Phinma International Juniors Week 1 as he swept Japan’s Kazuma Kawachi, 6-2, 6-3, yesterday to reach the finals at the Rizal Memorial Tennis Center.
Alcantara seized control early with his forehand winners anchored on solid baseline plays and went on to essay another straight-set victory – his fourth – over the stunned Kawachi who had no answer for the Filipino’s superior game.
“I jumped the gun on him because if I played it safe, he might get the momentum and it would be dangerous,” said Alcantara, the Cagayan de Oro native, the Australian Juniors Open doubles winner.
“But I didn’t rush it too much, I just played steady,” he added.
The victory set up the top-seeded Alcantara, now ranked 56th in the world, against another Japanese rival, Yoshihito Nishioka, in today’s finals of the ITF Grade 4 event sponsored by Phinma Group of Companies and backed by Tecnifibre Balls, Powerade, Viva Mineral Water, Century Park Hotel and the Philippine Sports Commission.
Nishioka, who went through a two-day qualifier to get into the main draw, dismantled compatriot and No. 6 Kairchi Uchida, 6-3, 6-2, in one of the biggest reversals posted in the week-long tournament.
which offers 40 ITF ranking points to the winner.
But against Alcantara, Nishioka will also need a lot of luck as the 17-year-old local bet is on the top of his game coming off a semifinal finish in the recent PCA Open.
Alcantara held serve all throughout while breaking the Kawachi four times to clinch the one-hour match. He also unleashed a barrage of power serves, hitting seven aces that completely befuddled the world No. 775 Kawachi.
Alcantara and partner, Leander Lazaro, however, fell short of their semifinal bid in the doubles, losing to unseeded Jack Schipanski of Australia and Tao Jun Nan of China, 6-7, (3), 6-4, 10-8, in a big upset late Friday.
In girls’ play, Chinese seventh pick Tian Ran shocked top seed Yuki Ito of Japan, 6-2, 6-4, to arrange a title clash with Belgian Justine De Sutter, who scrambled past Vietnamese sixth seed Trang Huynh Phuong Dai, 2-6, 6-3, 6-2.
Fresh from her surprising win over third seed Tan Li-yun of Singapore in the quarterfinals, 6-0, 6-1, the 15-year-old Tian sustained her form and rocked Ito with her solid game to move a win away from snaring her first title this year.