By Kristel Satumbaga
Inspired by his performance against the Greeks in their recent Davis Cup tie, Francis Casey Alcantara played beautifully with Thai Wishaya Trongcharoenchaikul and pulled off 3-6, 6-2, 10-4 win over Bulgaria’s Gabriel Donev and Germany’s Milen Ianakiev in the opening 1st Qatar Men’s ITF World Tennis Tour 2020 in Doha.
They next face Bulgarian Alexandar Lazorov and Romanian Dan Alexandru Tomescu, a 6-3, 6-7 (6), 10-7 winner over Marat Deviatiarov of Ukraine and George Tsivadze of Georgia.
Alcantara credited his improved game to his stint with the PH Davis Cup team where he and Ruben Gonzales toppled Petros Tsitsipas and Markos Kalovelonis, 7-6 (5), 6-4, a victory that prevented an embarrassing shutout loss.
Tsitsipas is the brother of world No. 6 Stefanos who won both his singles matches.
“It was by far the toughest tie for us. We never played against a Top 10 player and we all saw that he really played,” said Alcantara in an online interview with the Bulletin.
“We’re just happy that we won the doubles and gave the team and fans a little something to celebrate.”
Alcantara wished he and Gonzales could join more international tournaments as partners, but it could be tricky because of the gap on their rankings.
Alcantara is currently at No. 542 in the doubles while Gonzales is at 213.
For now, the 28-year-old Cagayan de Oro native is competing in as many tournaments as he can with best available partners.
Travel permitting, he is slated to compete for three weeks in Vietnam after the Doha tilt.
