FILIPINO junior tennis ace Francis Casey Alcantara suffered the biggest upset of his career after getting eliminated early in the Australian Open boys doubles, robbing him of a chance to defend the title in Australia.
Alcantara, who plays with new partner Guilerme Clezar of Brazil, bowed to unseeded local bets Benjamin Mitchell and Jason Kubler, 5-7, 6-4, 10-6.
The pride of Cagayan de Oro and his partner managed to snatch the first set, but had a more difficult task in the second as Mitchell and Kubler held them back and forced for a slide two to level the match at two sets each and forcing for a tiebreak, which the Australians aced.
Alcantara and Clezar, who are seeded eighth in the tournament sailed through an easy first round by defeating Polish player Maciej Smola and Korea’s Jea Moon Lee, 6-4, 6-3. But this was all the duo could manage.
Unlike last year, this seemed to be a bad start for Alcantara losing in the first round of the singles division and falling short in his title-defense of the doubles division. This is his final year as a junior player.
Alcantara shot to fame after winning the doubles title of the Australian Open last year along with partner Chinese Taipei’s Cheng-Peng Hsie. He also went on to win seven other ITF-sanctioned tournaments.
Although he still has a chance to compete in the other majors, Alcantara is also expected to help the RP team in the Davis Cup, which will debut in the Asia-Oceania Group I and he will lead the tennis team in the Youth Olympic Games in Singapore later this year.