By MARK REY MONTEJO
Francis Casey Alcantara and his Thai partner Pruchya Isaro pulled off a hard-earned 6-3, 4-6, 10-7 win over Timofey Skatov and Alexey Zakharov to advance to the quarterfinal round of the ATP Challenger Chennai Open in India Wednesday, Feb. 5.
Seeded No. 4 in the 16-pair doubles event, Alcantara and Pruchya displayed poise in the third set, coming through with huge serves and booming shots at the crunch to win the heated contest in one hour and almost 30 minutes.
The Filipino-Thai duo will face Japan’s Shintaro Mochizuki and Kaito Uesugi in the quarters stage of the competition which has a $160,000 (around P9.3 million) prize pool.
The Japanese netters beat Swiss Luca Castelnuovo and Ukrainian Eric Vanshelbolm, 6-4, 6-0, to arrange a duel with Alcantara andf Isaro.
After losing in the second round of the singles event, Alex Eala also dropped her doubles as she and Taiwanese partner Tsao Chia-Yi were toppled by Russians Elena Pridankina and Amina Anshba, 6-4, 6-4.
