Friday, 30 January 2009

Filipino junior netter Francis Casey Alcantara wins junior's doubles tilt in 2009 Australian Open

Filipinos, especially the sports aficionados, have a new sporting icon to look up to other than Manny Pacquiao. He is 16-year-old Filipino tennis prodigy Francis Casey Alcantara.

Alcantara, who hails from Cagayan de Oro, a city in Northern Mindanao, teamed up with Cheng Peng Hsei of Chinese-Taipei to win the Junior Boy's Doubles finals today at the 2009 Australian Open in Melbourne --- the feat making him the first-ever Filipino to lift a title at a Grand Slam. The 7th-seeded Filipino-Taiwanese tandem crushed the pair of Mikhal Biryukov from Russia and Yasutaka Uchiyama from Japan in straight sets 6-4, 6-2. Before reaching the finals, Alcantara and his partner dispatched the Austrian teens Maximilian Neuchrist & Tristan-Samuel Weissborn 7-6(4), 6-4 in a semifinal match held yesterday.


Francis Casey Alcantara: Champion in 2009 Australian Open Junior Boy's Doubles

Alcantara, currently ranked No. 26 in world juniors, is also entered at the Junior Boy's Singles as the seed no. 10 but succumbed easily to an unranked player Daniel Berta of Sweden 6-3, 6-4 in the first round. He recently took the grade-four Phinma International Junior Tennis Championship last month and won various doubles competitions in Thailand and Morocco.

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