Francis Casey Alcantara and Czech partner Zdenek Kolar escaped a close second set before outplaying wildcard pair Maximus Jones and Wishaya Trongcharoenchaikul, 6-3, 7-6 (7), in the opening round of the Bangkok Open 3 Challenger tournament in Thailand on Wednesday, Jan. 15.

The unseeded pair had to dig deep in the second-set tiebreak by scoring the last three points to turn a 7-6 deficit into a match victory that lasted 70 minutes.

The triumph gave Alcantara and Kolar a quarterfinals spot where they will clash with the dangerous unseeded tandem of  Yu Hsu Hsiou of Chinese Taipei and Sun Fajing of China.

Yu and Sun made heads turn in this Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) event by stunning third seed Blake Bayldon of Australia and Jakub Paul of Switzerland, 7-6 (4), 6-7 (4), 10-8.

Alcantara was no stranger to Sun as he has paired up with him in previous doubles tournaments.

Currently ranked No. 247 in the latest ATP doubles rankings after skidding 20 notches, Alcantara hopes for a better outcome to gain enough ranking points and regain his bearings.

Last week, he and American partner Evan King finished in the quarters of the Bangkok Open 2 following a loss to Japanese pair Seita Watanabe and Takeu Suzuki in three sets.