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Francis Casey Alcantara and Bogdan Bobrov.
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By Kristoffer Ed Bellen
MANILA--A momentous October continues for the Philippine tennis community as the country's former men's number one Francis Casey Alcantara and his Russian partner Bogdan Bobrov finished second in the recently held 4th Qatar Men's ITF World Tennis Tour 2019 at the Khalifa International Tennis & Squash Complex, in Doha, Qatar on Saturday.
Alcantara and Bobrov, who entered the tournament as the top seeds, played a hard-fought title match against unseeded Dutch players and eventual champions Guy Den Heijer and Sidane Pontjodikromo but eventually fell, 6-7(6), 4-6, 6-10.
Alcantara, who is currently ranked at 115 in the ITF World Tennis Tour men's doubles rankings despite starting the season as the world number 6, earned a much-needed momentum heading into the 30th Southeast Asian Games here next month after reaching the quarterfinals in five of his last seven tournaments since September.
Within that span, furthermore, Alcantara has reached the finals twice, with an earlier second-place finish at the US$25,000-Brisbane QTC Tennis International event at the Queensland Tennis Centre earlier this month.
Alcantara, who still stands as the only Filipino player, both in juniors and professional circuit, who won a Grand Slam title is expected to play next month for the Philippine tennis team when the country hosts the regional biennial tournament of Southeast Asia on Nov. 28-Dec. 11.
Follow him on Twitter: @KristoffBellen
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