Alcantara, partner oust seeded pair in jr tennis

Filipino Francis Casey Alcantara and Britain's Oliver Golding continued with their giant-killing ways in the AEGON Junior International-Roehamption 2010 boys' doubles event at The Bank of England Sports Centre. The unseeded pair eliminated the No. 2 ranked tandem of Bosnia and Herzegovina's Damir Dzumhur and Croatian Mate Pavic, 6-3 4-6 [10-4], to book a spot in the semifinal round of the International Tennis Federation (ITF) Grade I event. This is the second time that Alcantara and Golding eliminated a seeded pair after they defeated the eighth ranked Slovakian pair of Filip Horansky and Jozef Kovalik, 4-6, 6-3, [10-5] in the quarterfinals. Alcantara and Golding aims for a finals seat when they face No. 3 seeds Juan Sebastian Gomez of Colombia and Japan’s Yasutaka Uchiyama. It will be the second time that Alcantara will be facing Uchiyama in a doubles match after the latter defeated the Japanese in the finals of the 2009 Australian Open Junior Championships. Gomez and Uchiyama, who both ranked higher than their opponents in the ITF junior standings, defeated the seventh ranked Brazilian pair of Guilherme Clezar and Tiago Fernandes, 7-6 (4), 6-1, to advance in the Final Four. Gomez and Uchiyama occupy the 15th and 21st spots while Golding is at 40th place with Alcantara ranked 60th. But among the three players, Alcantara is the veteran in the doubles event where he holds a combined 114-43 record. Alcantara’s campaign in the doubles earned him the 2009 Aussie Open Junior crown with Chinese-Taipei’s Hsieh Cheng-peng as his partner. He and Hsieh did not drop a set in the tournament on their way of scoring a 6-4, 6-2 win over Uchiyama and Russia’s Mikhail Biryukov. The 18-year-old Alcantara’s partnership with Filipino-American Raymond Sarmiento also produced a doubles title when they topped the 21st Mitsubishi Lancer International Tennis Championships in Manila. Alcantara is currently ranked 60th in the world with 387.5 points and has so far earned 77.5 points in doubles play. – Jon Perez, GMANews.TV