Filipino tennis player Francis Casey Alcantara made it to the men's doubles semifinals in the ATP Challenger in Zhangjiagang, China.
Alcantara and partner Pruchaya Isaro of Thailand defeated Ajeet Rai and Finn Reynolds of New Zealand, 6-3, 6-7 (7), 10-6, in the quarterfinals on Thursday.
They will face Yu Hsiou Hsu of Chinese Taipei and Fajing Sun of China, who scored a 7-6 (0), 6-4, victory over Evgeny Donsky and Evgeny of Karlovskiy of Russia.
"Great match. I'm very happy that we got the win despite being down 3-5 sa (at the) super tiebreak," Alcantara said in an interview on Friday.
The Filipino Davis Cupper, also a medalist at the SEA Games, likewise reached the semifinal round with Sun at the Jinan Challenger last week but bowed to Korean Yun Seong Chung and Japanese Yuta Shimizu, 6-7 (4), 4-6.
Alcantara teamed up with Isaro six times last year, winning an ITF event in New Delhi, India.
"We'll do our best," said Alcantara, who won two titles in Nakhon Si Thammarat, Thailand with local Maximus Jones last month.
The pride of Cagayan de Oro bagged his first title this year in Chennai, India with Indonesian Christopher Rungkat.
Alcantara reached the semifinals in Anning, China (with Rungkat); Bengaluru, India (with Japanese Kaichi Unchida); and Nonthaburi Challenger 1 (with Uchida).
After his semifinal performance in Jinan, Alcantara improved to No. 214 in the world's doubles rankings. He achieved a career-high No. 162 in February. (PNA)
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