Civarolo shows lone RP bet Alcantara exit door in Mitsubishi tennis

MANILA, Philippines – Fifteenth seed Matteo Civarolo of Italy broke the hearts of Filipino tennis fans Thursday as he ended the campaign of No.2 rank Francis Casey Alcantara, 2-6, 6-3, 7-5, in the third round of the 20th Mitsubishi Lancer International Tennis Championships at the Rizal Memorial Tennis Center. The 17-year old Civarolo, 93rd in the International Tennis Federation (ITF) rankings, engaged Alcantara in a 150-minute battle and showed resiliency as he fought back from two-games down in the third set. Civarolo’s win put him to a quarterfinal showdown with seventh seed Maximillian Neuchrist of Austria, who reached the Last 8 with a 6-4, 6-0, decision over Muddapa Appanervanda. “He a good player and the people were cheering for him. And I’m just happy to have won the match," said Civarolo after the match. Alcantara had a strong start as he held serve in the first set for a 6-2 decision. But things changed in the second set as he slowly lost his touch committing four double faults and his serve was broken twice by Civarolo, in the fifth and seventh game, as the Italian netter forged a rubber at 6-3. Alcantara called for a medical time out due to cramps in both his legs middle of the third game. But he remained upbeat as he broke Civarolo in the sixth game for a 4-2 lead and was still up at 5-4 when the Italian rallied. Civarolo, who played in the ITF events held in Thailand and Malaysia, got back from a 0-30 count with an ace and forced Alcantara to three unforced errors. He broke Alcantara in the next game before Civarolo again held serve for the victory. “He was serving very well in the first set and I made adjustments in the next set and broke him twice. In the third set, he got cramps and I won this match," added Civarolo, whose best showing in an ITF event is a Round of 16 stint in Thailand. “He played well in the next two sets and I was affected with cramps," a dejected Alcantara said. The results kept the Philippines winless in boys’ singles play since the tournament started in 1989. The Cagayan De Oro bet, who won the Australian Juniors Open doubles crown with partner Hsieh Cheng-Peng of Chinese Taipei, will try to atone for his unsuccessful bid I for the singles crown when he teams up Daniel Berta of Sweden in the doubles. Alcantara and Berta dominated the pair of Juan Antonio Los Santos and Jeroen Benard of The Netherlands, 6-2, 7-5, to advance into the quarterfinals. The Alcantara and Berta duo won the doubles crown in the ITF Malaysia event. They will either face the Malyasia-Philippines partnership of Jason Michael Lee and Paul Nicole Magaway or the tandem of Jeroen Claeys of Belguim and Josey Swaysland of Australia in the quarterfinals. – GMANews.TV