Francis Casey Alcantara and Sun Fajing stumbled early in the Guangzhou Nansha International Challenger at the expense of their seeded rivals on Wednesday, May 1, in China.

The Filipino-Chinese pair rose from an opening set loss but lost steam in the critical tie breaker to yield to third pick Patrik Niklas-Salminen of Finland and Nam Ji-sung of South Korea, 3-6, 6-3, 10-8, in the first round of the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) event.

Tied at 5 in the tie breaker, Nam and Niklas-Salminen strung up four straight points to take a commanding 9-5 lead to give them enough cushion for the win.

Alcantara and Sun answered back with three straight points to cut the deficit to 9-8, but Nam and Niklas-Salminen quickly regained their momentum and sealed the victory.

A victory for Alcantara and Sun could have arranged them a quarterfinals meeting with unseeded Australians Luke Saville and Li Tu, who edged compatriots Akira Santillan and Omar Jasika, 6-3, 7-5.

Alcantara and Sun have been competing as a pair for the last four Challenger events in South Korea and China, but remained unsuccessful in making it past the first round.

The duo, however, have already won an International Tennis Federation (ITF) title in 2018 at the China F8 Futures.

Alcantara, a mixed doubles bronze medalist at last year’s Asian Games, is currently ranked No. 171 in the ATP doubles and went as high as No. 162 last February. Sun, meanwhile, is at No. 196.