Casey, Fil-Am warm up vs fancied rivals

MANILA, Philippines - Top Filipino bets Francis Casey Alcantara and Raymond Sarmiento pulled off emphatic victories yesterday to lead the host country’s charge in Day 2 of the 21st Mitsubishi ITF Junior Championships at the Rizal Memorial Tennis Center.

The 18-year-old Alcantara, ranked 38th in the world and seeded fourth here, booted out Ariez Elyaas Hesham of Malaysia, 6-4, 6-0, while Sarmiento, a 17-year-old US-born Filipino, downed Barrett Franks of New Zealand, 6-4, 6-1, to advance to the third round.

Marian Jade Capadocia, the last Filipina standing, rallied from a first-set loss to stun No. 12 Ekaterina Nikitina of Russia, 3-6, 7-5, 6-2, in a late match.

Alcantara, who teamed up with Swedish Daniel Berta to rule last year’s doubles title, forged an interesting third round match with No. 13 Wang Chuhan of China while the second-seeded Sarmiento set up a third-round duel with Timur Neymatov of Russia.

Wang pummeled Campbell Johnson of the US, 6-3, 6-0, while Neymatov overpowered No. 16 Sam Barry of Ireland, 6-4, 6-2, to advance in this tournament backed by ACCEL, Century Park Hotel, ITF Juniors Circuit, Dunlop Sports and Gatorade.

Alcantara, who is teaming up with Sarmiento in the doubles event where they are seeded second, said he started out flat but adjusted well to pull off the straight-set win.

“I couldn’t find my shots early but I adopted in time to win this match,” said Alcantara, who is playing his last ITF juniors tournament.

Kim Ivor Saraza couldn’t sustain the form he displayed in toppling a higher-ranked Nuttanon Kadchapanan of Thailand, 6-3, 6-3, as he ran into a taller, bigger top seed Mate Zsiga of Hungary and absorbed a 0-6, 1-6 defeat.

Neymatov’s stunning victory over Barry wasn’t the lone surprise of the day as unheralded Kalle Averfalk of Sweden, Spencer Simon of the US, James Marsalek of Great Britain and James Duckworth of Australia pulled off big wins over their fancied foes.

Averfalk humbled No. 12 Mathias Wunner of Germany, 6-4, 6-2; Simon tamed No. 3 Dominic Thiem of Austria, 6-0, 4-1 (ret.); Marsalek slew No. 9 Jeong Suk Young of Korea, 6-4, 7-5; and Duckworth shocked No. 8 Ben McClachlan of New Zealand, 6-2, 6-1.

The rest of the seeds – No. 14 Dane Webb of the US, No. 5 John Morrissey of Ireland, No. 6 Darian King of Barbados and No. 10 Tobias Blomgren of Sweden – made it past the upset-filled second round.

Webb edged Leonard Stakhovsky, 6-4, 6-7(4), 6-3; Morrissey turned back Joey Swaysland of Austria, 3-6, 7-6(4), 6-2; King trounced Mads Engsted of Denmark, 6-4, 7-5; while Blomgren walloped Andrew Whittington of Australia, 6-1, 6-2.