Push Admin

Tennis: Alcantara, Rungkat outplayed in Bangkok Open final

Article (news)

Rosy Mina

<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img alt="Lawn Tennis Association of Thailand" src="https://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2022/life/09/03/20220903-lawn-tennis-association-of-thailand.jpg"/><figcaption>Christopher Rungkat of Indonesia and Francis Casey Alcantara of the Philippines. <em>Photo courtesy of the Lawn Tennis Association of Thailand on Facebook.</em></figcaption></figure></div><p>MANILA – Francis Casey Alcantara of the Philippines and Christopher Rungkat of Indonesia lost in the Bangkok Open final on Saturday against No. 3 seeds Benjamin Lock of Zimbabwe and Yuta Shimizu of Japan, 1-6, 3-6, in Nonthaburi, Thailand.</p><p>It was the first Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) Challenger Tour final of the 30-year-old Alcantara, who has four doubles titles on the International Tennis Federation (ITF) Men’s World Tennis Tour. </p><p>Alcantara and Rungkat were broken thrice in the first set, holding serve only once after overcoming deuce in the third game.</p><p>Lock and Shimizu secured love service holds to be at 3-1 and then at 5-1, after which they earned four set points in the seventh game.</p><p>The Filipino-Indonesian tandem saved a break point by forcing a backhand volley error, and the Zimbabwean-Japanese duo fought back with a backhand return-of-serve winner to claim the first set, 6-1.</p><p>Two crucial backhand winners by Alcantara caused him and Rungkat to take a 2-0 lead in the second set.</p><p>The Filipino doubles specialist hit a backhand return-of-serve shot down the line to break in the opening game.</p><p>Down 15-40 in the second game, Rungkat served an ace to save a break point. At 40-40, Alcantara let out a backhand volley winner to clinch the second game.</p><p>Lock and Shimizu caught up and leveled at 3-3 before winning the next three games to bag the championship, 6-3, with the prize of $2,000. Alcantara and Rungkat settled for the finalists’ prize of $1,160. </p><p>In the eighth game, Lock and Shimizu accomplished a love service break with a backhand volley winner in order to serve for the match.</p><p>At 30-30, a netted forehand from Rungkat and Alcantara gave Lock and Shimizu a match point, and a long forehand return-of-serve sealed the final in favor of the Zimbabwean and Japanese.</p><p>On their way to the final, Alcantara and Rungkat upset No. 2 seeds Ray Ho of Chinese Taipei and Grigoriy Lomakin of Kazakhstan, 7-5, 4-6, 10-5, in the first round.</p><p>They got past Sergey Fomin and Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan, 7-6(8), 6-2, in the quarterfinals, and overcame Anirudh Chandrasekar and Vishnu Vardhan of India, 2-6, 6-4, 11-9, in the semifinals. </p><p>Just last month, Alcantara and Rungkat faced off in the doubles semifinals of the M15 Jakarta, an Indonesian ITF tournament.</p><p>Rungkat and countryman Nathan Anthony Barki won over Alcantara and Yuki Mochizuki of Japan in three sets. </p><p>Alcantara, the ATP Doubles World No. 445, has won two ITF doubles titles this season at the M25 Cairo in Egypt and M15 Tay Ninh in Vietnam.</p><ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/sports/08/13/22/tennis-alcantara-mochizuki-suffer-semis-upset-in-m15-jakarta">Tennis: Alcantara, Mochizuki suffer semis upset in M15 Jakarta</a></li>	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/sports/06/11/22/alcantara-ly-clinch-m15-tennis-doubles-title-in-vietnam">Tennis: Alcantara, Ly bag M15 Tay Ninh doubles title in Vietnam</a></li></ul><div><strong>RELATED VIDEO</strong></div><figure class="op-interactive"><iframe height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/cNO9FvC6_6c?enablejsapi=1" width="560"></iframe></figure><div class="iwantbar">Watch more News on <a href="https://www.iwanttfc.com/#!/browse/Genres/News/tag_id_genres/id_news" target="_blank">iWantTFC</a></div>

MANILA – Francis Casey Alcantara of the Philippines and Christopher Rungkat of Indonesia lost in the Bangkok Open final on Saturday against No. 3 seeds Benjamin Lock of Zimbabwe and Yuta Shimizu of Japan, 1-6, 3-6, in Nonthaburi, Thailand.