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By Emil C. Noguera, Correspondent
Grand slam champion Francis Casey Alcantara got off to a good start
in the AEGON International Junior Tennis Championships—Roehampton
2009 being held at The Bank of England Sports Ground Bank Lane.
The pride of Cagayan de Oro City scored a 6-4,
6-7 (4), 6-2 upset over 11th seed Tennys Sandgren of the United
States in the opening round of this graded-one tournament.
“I’m looking forward to play better in the next round. Maraming
nasayang na puntos sa second set. Sa akin na sana yun kaya lang mas
naging maganda laro niya sa tie break. But in the third set, I made
it sure na mas mataas ang accuracy rate ko,” said the 17-year-old
Filipino pride.
Alcantara progressed into the second round
against qualifier James Chaudry of Great Britain who repulsed
Maximilian Neuchrist of Austria, 6-4, 6-7 (9), 6-2.
Top seeds Daniel Berta of Sweden and Huang Liang-Chi of Chinese
Taipei also cruised to the next round as No. 5 Shuichi Sekiguchi of
Japan, No. 9 Hsieh Cheng-Peng of Chinese Taipei, No. 12 Evan King of
the United States and No. 14 Federico Gaio of Italy, got booted out
of contention after absorbing sorry losses in their respective
matches.
Berta, the reigning French Open juniors
champion, blasted Andrew Bettles of Great Britain, 6-0, 6-1, while
Huang rallied past wild card George Morgan also of Great Britain,
0-6 6-3, 6-4.
Alcantara and Hsieh, winner of the 2009
Australian Open juniors championship doubles title, will revive
their partnership in the doubles play beginning late Tuesday. They
will be up against British wild cards Lewis Burton and George
Morgan.
“I’m excited to play with him [Hsieh] again.
We’ve been together in this European trip for almost two months?
We are hoping to knock it out again this time,” added Alcantara,
ranked 26th in the world juniors. Alcantara and Hsieh are gunning
for their third doubles crown this year.
Besides the Australian Open, they also bagged
the 45th Astrid Bowl Charleroi, Belgian International Junior
Championships in Belgium last month.
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