At A Glance
- Francis Casey Alcantara and Thai partner Pruchya Isaro squeaked past the persistent plays of fellow unseeded Japanese rivals Seita Watanabe and Rio Noguchi, 4-6, 7-6 (4), 10-7, to barge into the quarterfinals in the Zhangjiagang International Challenger in China on Wednesday, Aug. 28.
Francis Casey Alcantara and Thai partner Pruchya Isaro squeaked past the persistent plays of fellow unseeded Japanese rivals Seita Watanabe and Rio Noguchi, 4-6, 7-6 (4), 10-7, to barge into the quarterfinals in the Zhangjiagang International Challenger in China on Wednesday, Aug. 28.

The unseeded Filipino-Thai tandem crawled back from a slow opening set and held their ground in the last two frames to inch closer to the men’s doubles title in this Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) event.
The victory arranged Alcantara and Isaro their next meeting against Australians Ajeet Rai and Finn Reynolds, who stunned second seed Nam Ji-sung of South Korea and Ray Ho of Chinese Taipei, 6-3, 6-2.
After surviving a close second set, Alcantara and Isaro kept their momentum in the third-set tiebreaker by untangling themselves from an early 2-all deadlock by winning the next five points for the needed 7-2 advantage.
Watanabe and Noguchi refused to give up easily, claiming five of the next six points to trim their deficit to 7-8, but Alcantara and Isaro quickly got back into action and snared the next two points for the match win.
Alcantara is hoping to eclipse his runner-up last year with a different partner in Sun Fajing of China and add another trophy in his growing collection of 25 ITF doubles crowns including three this year.
Both Alcantara and Isaro are coming off stints with different partners at the Jinan ATP Challenger also in China last week, with the Filipino standout making into the semifinals with Sun and the Thai veteran settling for the runner-up finish with Indonesian partner Christopher Rungkat.