CHUIDINELLI/ Lacko vs Alcantara/Rungkat toss coin. Photo by Marc Reyes
Displaying seamless teamwork, Filipino Francis Casey Alcantara and Indonesian Christopher Rungkat defeated Marco Chiudinelli of Switzerland and Lukas Lacko of Slovakia Thursday night and barged into the doubles finals of the $75,000 ATP Challenger Philippine Open.
Rungkat took care of the hustle at baseline, while Alcantara was in charge with volley kills to post a 6-3, 6-3 triumph that brought them to the championship at Rizal Memorial Tennis Center.
The winning duo’s game plans proved too much even for Chuidinelli, a 34-year-old Swiss Davis Cupper, and 28-year-old Lacko, who reached the Wimbledon third round in 2012.
They moved straight to the finals after their semifinal opponents, Thai twins Sanchai and Sonchat Ratiwatana, went home due to a death in the family.
In the singles draw, Lacko and seventh seed Igor Sijsling of Netherlands hurdled their respective assignments to arrange a quarterfinal duel.
Ranked 110th in the world, the 28-year-old Lacko fended off Italian Federico Gaio, 6-1, 3-6, 6-1, to advance against the Dutch No. 145 who routed Israel’s Amir Weintraub, 6-2, 6-2.
Stealing the limelight from the seeded players was Italian Gianluca Naso who scored a 6-3, 7-6 (7-4) upset of fifth seed Kimmer Coppejans of Belgium. Naso will take on the winner between second seed Mikhail Youzhny of Russia and Yannick Mertens of Belgium.
Second seeds Johan Brunstrom of Denmark and Frederik Nielsen of Denmark got through the doubles semifinals with a 7-5, 6-2 victory over South Africans Dean O’Brien and Ruan Roelofse.