Tuesday, October 16, 2007 Oro's tennis hero just does it by his lonesome By Lynde Salgados
HIS was a lonely travail, but junior tennis hotshot Francis Casey Belderol Alcantara never rest on his laurel in as far as bringing honors to the country and his home base in far North, which is seemingly unmindful of his existence and latest exploits abroad.
The high school student of Xavier University had just strung up numerous wins outside the Philippines, though he'll always end up enduring the plight of a lone ranger everytime he returns home.
"He used to step down at the Lumbia airport with no one else around to welcome or fetch him for a ride to the city proper. Naanad na daw siya pero malooy ko nga magsud-ong sa iya," confides Casey's ever supportive mother, Sarah Belle Belderol-Alcantara, a widow of the late Dr. Alcantara and a busy soul presently working at the SSS's (Social Security System) regional office in Barangay Carmen.
Indeed, the youthful Alcantara is the city's gem in lawn tennis worth to nurture and be given an all-out support. Much more be treated like a sports hero in the real sense of word.
Arguably the country's brightest hope in the sport being the most successful campaigner of his peers during which he's still whacking the nets in the age-group level, Alcantara is at it again stamping his class in the Land of the Rising Sun and the People's Republic of China.
For a warm-up, the beanpole Casey reached the singles' semis and the doubles' quarter in the Hyogo International Junior Tournament 1 Grade 5 at Green-Pia Miki in Hyogo, Japan before copping the doubles championship alongside Japanese partner Hiroyasu Ehara on his next try where he made it to the second round of the singles competition.
Teaming up with Chinese Taipei's Hsieh Cheng Peng, the tandem emerged doubles champion in the China II Junior Grade 3 Challenge off the Huzhou Tennis Center in China People's Republic where the Cagayan de Oro ace again vaulted to the second round of the singles event.
"While playing abroad, at least he learns to cope up with academic demands back home through the advantage of technology," Mama Belle says of her laptop-wielding son.
It's presumably not a peaceful easy feeling, however, for the young Casey when not even a single hero's welcome can be heard of from the very place where the Philippines' most promising netter at present time comes from.
