Filipino tennis doubles specialists Treat Huey and Francis Casey Alcantara both overcame a one-set deficit to eke out come-from-behind victories on Thursday and booked semifinal spots in their respective tournaments.
Huey and William Blumberg of the United States caught a reprieve from a rain interruption after they dropped the opening set, 3-6, against local bets Alastair Gray and Ryan Peniston at the grass-court of the Rothesay Open in Nottingham, Great Britain.
When play was resumed, this time at the indoor hard court of the Nottingham Tennis Centre, the fourth seeds had to dig deep to fight off the persistent challenge from Gray and Peniston who fell short in the second set tiebreak, 4-7.
The deciding super tiebreak was where Huey and Blumberg finally created some separation to prevail in three pulsating sets, 3-6, 7-6 (7-4), 10-5, to advance to the final four of the ATP Challenger 125 event.
Alcantara and Vietnam’s top player Ly Hoang Nam found themselves also in a hole early in the Hai Dang Tennis Cup in Tay Ninh City, Vietnam.
The Southeast Asian tandem bounced back after dropping the opening set to prevail over Shohei Chikami and Masamichi Imamura of Japan, 4-6, 6-2, 10-7.
Alcantara and Nam will be up against recent SEA Games men’s doubles bronze medalists Minh Tuan Pham and Linh Giang Trinh from the host country in the semifinals of the ITF M15 competition.
Another Philippine national tennis team player, SEA Games men’s doubles gold medalist Ruben Gonzales was not as fortunate. Gonzales and American partner Reese Stalder, the third seeds in the ATP Challenger 100 Orlando Open in Florida, suffered an upset in the quarterfinals against unseeded alternates Malek Jaziri of Tunisia and Kaichi Uchida of Japan, 6-7 (4-7), 5-7.
