Alcantara, pal barge into Japan Open quarters

MANILA, Philippines – Francis Casey Alcantara, looking for vindication after his disappointing performance in the singles play, kept his bid for a doubles title alive in the Japan Open Junior Championships in Nagoya, Japan. Alcantara and Taiwanese Hsieh Cheng Peng, his same partner in last January’s Australian Open Juniors conquest, disposed of Japanese pair Gengo Kikuchi and Shu Sato, 7-5, 7-5, on Friday to advance to the quarterfinals. The top seeds in the ITF grade one tournament, Alcantara and Hsieh gun for a semis berth against Takeshi Endo and Shota Tagawa, who beat No. 7 pair Venkat Iyer of India and Ivan Turudic of Croatia, 6-2, 6-2. The netter from Cagayan de Oro is vying for a third doubles crown this year after the Australian Open Juniors with Hsieh, and the 13th Sarawak Chief Minister’s Cup-ITF World Junior Tennis Championships 2009 and 20th Mitsubishi Lancer International Juniors Championships, both with Swedish Daniel Berta. Alcantara was earlier shown the door in the singles division after bowing to Kikuchi, 1-6, 6-7 (3) in the round of 32. –GMANews.TV