MANILA, Philippines - Second seed Johan Brunstrom of Sweden and Frederik Nielsen of Denmark turned back the stubborn pair of Maximilian Neuchrist of Austria and Divij Sharan of India, 6-3, 6-7 (8), 10-7, yesterday to advance to the finals of the $75,000 ATP Challenger Philippine Open at the Rizal Tennis Center.
The win sent Brunstrom and Nielsen straight to the finals where they will clash with giant-slayers Francis Casey Alcantara of the Philippines and Christopher Rungkat of Indonesia today.
Alcantara and Rungkat made it this far by trouncing Marco Chiudinelli of Switzerland and Lucas Lacko Slovakia, 6-3, 6-2, in last Thursday’s quarterfinals and then won via forfeiture versus No. 4 Sonchai and Sonchat Ratawatana of Thailand to clinch the first berth to the finals.
The Ratawatana twins, a many-time Southeast Asian Games gold medallist, withdrew and suddenly went back home due to death in the family, paving the way for a finals stint for Alcantara and Rungkat.
The Alcantara-Rungkat tandem was also responsible for booting out top seed Ilija Bozoljac of Serbia and Andreas Siljestrom of Sweden in the first round.
Interestingly, Brunstrom and Nielsen was the same pair that eliminated local bet Jeson Patrombon, who partnered with Taipei’s Jimmy Wang, in the opening round.
Now Alcantara will have a chance to avenge his countryman’s defeat.