CAGAYAN de Oro’s tennis star Francis Casey Alcantara on Tuesday, March
21, marched to the second round after beating his first round opponent in the ongoing Bahrain F1 Men’s Futures singles.
The 25-year-old Alcantara defeated lower seed Saida’lo Saidkarimov of Uzbekistan in two straight sets.
The Kagay-anon demolished Saidkarimov in the first set, 6-2, and finished him off in a tight second set at 6-4.
But, Alcantara will be in for a tough duel against his doubles partner in the fifth-seeded Benjamin Lock of Zimbabwe in the second round.
Alcantara and Lock won the doubles title in the F8 Men’s Futures two weeks ago in Egypt and will be teaming up again in the tournament’s doubles event.
Lock, on the other hand, advanced to the second round via 6-3, 7-6 (3) victory over Mubarak Shannan Zayid of Qatar.
It would be a daunting task for the Kagay-anon against the 24-year-old Lock.
Lock stands at 6-foot-7 and has a singles ranking of 464 in the International Tennis Federation (ITF).
Alcantara is a foot shorter to the much taller Lock and has an ITF singles ranking of 856.