CAGAYAN de Oro City’s Francis Casey Alcantara and Thai partner Sonchat Ratiwatana survived a grueling match in the final to win the US$ 15,000 F6 Thailand Futures doubles tournament on Friday at True Arena Hua Hin in Thailand.
Experience paid off well for Alcantara and the veteran Ratiwatana as they outlasted the pair of India’s Kurunuday Singh and Ajeet Rai of New Zealand in the deciding set.
The Oro ace netter and Ratiwatana started strong in the first set almost blanking the opposition, 6-1.
But, things heat up in the next set as Singh and Rai made a fierce comeback to pull up a similar a 6-1 victory and force a deciding tie-breaker.
Alcantara and Ratiwatana scored from good breaks enough to regain the momentum en route to a clinching 10-6 triumph in the final.
This is the third straight futures doubles title for Alcantara in Thailand this year, though he teamed up with Kurunuday first in the F4 Futures in the last week of September and Japan’s Shintaro Imai in winning the F5 doubles crown.