Casey in semis; Clarice bows out

MANILA, Philippines - Francis Casey Alcantara remained on course of a back-to-back title bid, pounding out a 6-4, 6-0 victory over Soichiro Moritani of Japan to reach the semifinal round of the Phinma International Juniors Week 2 at the Rizal Memorial Tennis Center yesterday.

The 17-year-old Filipino netter, who bested Yoshihito Nishioka, also of Japan, 7-5, 6-0, to claim the Week 1 crown last Sunday, struggled with his service in the early going, committing four double faults while Moritani unloaded two aces as the Japanese forced a 3-all count.

But the Cagayan de Oro native found his rhythm to take the seventh, eighth and 10th games to prevail before imposing his power and class in the next set to blank his opponent, who gave up what seemed to be easy returns, enabling Alcantara to coast to the victory and into the last of the boys side of the event sponsored by Phinma Group of Companies.

But while Alcantara, also a doubles winner in this year’s Australian Juniors Open, kept his win run going, Anna Clarice Patrimonio ran out of steam and dropped a 2-6, 0-6 setback to Chinese fourth seed Ran Tian, who captured the girls diadem with a 6-2, 7-6(2) win over Belgium’s Justine de Sutter, also last Sunday.

Tian, also out to match Alcantara’s sweep bid in the ITF Grade 4 tournament, backed by Tecnifibre Balls, Powerade, Viva Mineral Water, Century Park Hotel and the Philippine Sports Commission, flexed her muscle early and overwhelmed the Filipina bet with big forehand winners and solid returns to fashion out the straight-set victory.

It was a sorry loss for Patrimonio, who upended higher ranked rivals Nattawadee Kotcha of Thailand, 2-6, 6-1, 6-2, and fifth seed Rana Sherif Ahmed of Egypt, 6-1, 76 (3), to arrange a duel with Tian.

The Chinese romp set her up against second seed Yuki Ito of Japan, who fended off Chinese qualifier Zhao Qianqian, 7-5, 6-4.