Francis Casey Alcantara propelled to a career-high No. 224 in the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) doubles rankings this week following his recent finishes in the Challenger Tour.

The 31-year-old Cagayan de Oro native jumped 14 notches from No. 238 after a quarterfinals finish in the Porto Open in Portugal over the weekend with Latvian partner Robert Strombachs.

He and Strombachs first prevailed over hometown bets Goncalo Falcao and Duarte Vale, 6-4, 6-2, before yielding to France’s Jonathan Eysseric and Pakistan’s Aisam-U-Haq Qureshi, 6-1, 6-4.

Prior to this stint, Alcantara paired with Sun Fajing of China and claimed the runner-up honors in the Open Castilla y Leon in Segovia, Spain.

He and Sun threaded through the eye of the needle with a 6-2, 3-6, 10-8 victory over Spaniards David Marrero and Fernando Verdasco in the opening round, before sweeping Qureshi and India’s Divij Sharan in the quarters, 6-4, 6-3.

Then, the Filipino-Chinese duo bounced back from a first-set loss to defeat Israel’s Daniel Cukierman and Colombia’s Adria Soriano Barrera, 3-6, 6-3, 10-8, before falling short to French tandem Dan Added and Pierre-Hugues Herbert, 4-6, 6-3, 12-10, in the finals.

“New week, new career high ranking! Thank you to all the people who made this possible,” Alcantara wrote on social media.

Alcantara was best known for becoming the first Filipino to win a Grand Slam Junior Doubles title with Taiwanese partner Hsieh Cheng-peng at the Australian Open in 2009.

He was also a veteran Davis Cupper and a multiple Southeast Asian Games gold medalist including the doubles crown with partner Ruben Gonzales in the 32^nd edition in Cambodia last May.