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Francis Casey "Niño" Alcantara. From his official Facebook page
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TAGAYTAY–Ahead of the 2018 ATP and WTA Tennis Tour that is set to come into action in the inaugural event at Brisbane International presented by Suncorp in Brisbane, Australia on Sunday, Filipino tennis sensation Francis Casey Alcantara shared his recent offseason preparations entering into the upcoming season.
Alcantara, who currently enjoys an Emirates ATP doubles ranking of No. 351, confessed in an interview with Dugout Philippines over the holiday season on how he is trying to participate into multiple ATP Challenger Tour matches next year by conducting various preparations including an upcoming training in Australia as early as next month.
“I hope I’ll do better next year. I am doing my offseason training right now and will start in Australia on January,” said Alcantara, who won multiple ITF Futures titles last year including three consecutive championships within the Singapore stretch midway through the year in May and June.
“[I’m] going to play lots of Challengers next year if my ranking permits,” he also added, after only making a pair of appearances in the Challenger Tour at Traralgon and Canberra, Australia, respectively.
The former Australian Open Junior Doubles champion grabbed five ITF Futures doubles titles overall last season which were capped off by a marvelous run with partner Sem Verbeek in all three Singapore Futures events to add to his first trophy at the Egypt F8 in March with Benjamin Lock before winning his fifth title in Hong Kong alongside Karunuday Singh.
When asked about how he foresees the 2018 tennis season for the Philippines in general, the 25-year old racketeer out of Cagayan de Oro honestly admitted how he wants to stay out of the current issue that is happening within the Philippine Tennis Association (PHILTA).
“I really don’t know and I don’t want to be a part of the happenings right now because I just want to focus on my tennis,” he said.
It can be recalled that Alcantara and Treat Huey teamed up early this year to deliver the Philippines into the second round of the Asia-Oceania Group 2 Davis Cup after a first round shutout victory over Indonesia’s D. Susanto and S. Triajiti in Manila, 6-2, 6-4, 6-4.
Furthermore, Alcantara and Ruben Gonzales also delivered a silver medal in the doubles event of the Men’s Tennis at the 29th Southeast Asian Games in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia despite bowing down against Thai twins Sonchai and Sanchai Ratiwana in an intense three-set tiebreak, 6-4, 2-6, 7-6(4).
Alcantara racked up his career-high doubles rankings as world’s No. 330 last Oct. 23 and is currently having a 77-33 career doubles win-loss record at the ATP and ITF Pro Circuit combined.
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