Filipino Jr. netter in World's Top 100

Francis Casey Alcantara

The Philippines' no. 1 junior tennis star Francis Casey "Nino" Alcantara is one of the world's top junior tennis players. In the year-end world juniors rankings of the International Tennis Federation, he finished at no. 96.

Alcantara's recent success on the Asian circuit helped him advance rapidly from his previous ranking of no. 154. In his most recent triumph, Alcantara beat Australia's James Duckworth, who was seeded no. 5, to win the Phinma World Junior Tennis Championships title at the Rizal Memorial Tennis Center.

Pablo Olivarez Jr., also a top Filipino junior player also improved his ranking and now stands at 198. Other Filipinos in the rankings are Joshua Tan Ho (no. 565), Mark Balce (718) and Alicio Sy (731).

Alcantara's fine performance in the ITF World Junior Tennis Championships included an excellent showing in the doubles as well. He partnered Sylvester Wee of Singapore to win the boys' doubles at the Kallang Tennis Center in Singapore, where he lost in the singles finals to Malaysia's Juan Antonio Los Santos, who is of Spanish heritage.

His coach, former Davis Cup player Jun Toledo, said Alcantara was "playing really well and dominating," buoyed by his smashing victory in Malaysia in a Grade 4 level tournament, where he won the 18-and-under boys' singles, overcoming 17-year-old Indian no. 3 seed Karunuday Singh in the finals, 7-6, 5-7, 6-4.