Alcantara, Indonesian partner rule ITF tourney in Malaysia

MANILA, Philippines – Francis Casey Alcantara and Indonesian partner Christopher Rungkat needed to win two matches in the same day to bag the championship.

And win they did in commanding fashion.

The top-seeded veteran pair blasted Thijmen Loof of the Netherlands and Wishaya Trongcharoenchaikul of Thailand, 6-2, 6-0, in the finals of the Sanctband M15 ITF World Tennis Tour on Saturday, November 25, at the Perak Lawn Tennis Association in Ipoh Perak, Malaysia.

Alcantara and Rungkat were on fire from the get-go as they jumped the gun on their unseeded foes and raced to a 4-0 lead.

Although Loof and Trongcharoenchaikul avoided a shutout by winning the next two games, Alcantara and Rungkat went on to sweep the next eight games to claim the title in just 53 minutes.

Earlier in the day, the 31-year-old Alcantara and the 33-year-old Rungkat dominated fourth seeds Qian Sun and Sheng Tang of China in the semifinals in just 1 hour and 3 minutes, 6-3, 6-2. 

This week’s title run was a fitting bounce back for Alcantara and Rungkat, who faltered last week in the opening round of the ITF M25 Hua Hin in Thailand.

This is Alcantara’s fourth pro doubles title for 2023. His last championship came in June when he won the ITF M25 Nakhon Si Thammarat in Thailand with Japanese partner Hiroki Moriya. 

Alcantara and Rungkat will gun for back-to-back titles when they partner anew in next week’s KL M15 ITF World Tennis Tour 2023 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. 

A native of Cagayan de Oro City, Alcantara is enjoying one of the best seasons of his career, winning the mixed doubles bronze medal in the Asian Games with Alex Eala and the SEA Games men’s doubles gold medal with Ruben Gonzales this year.

He reached a career-high world ranking of No. 223 on October 30 and made the finals of two ATP Challenger events and two ITF tournaments this year. – Rappler.com