PHL duo ends doubles stint in Florida clay

RUBEN GONZALES and Francis Casey Alcantara closed out their partnership with a quarterfinal stint the second leg of the M25 International Tennis Federation (ITF) ASC BMW $25,000 World Tennis Tour in Naples, Florida, on Wednesday.

The duo absorbed a 6-7, 6-4, 7-10 setback from Connor Huertas del Pino and Alexander Merino of Peru but kept their heads up in their best finish on Naple’s clay.

“I think we played a high level match today but we just came up a little short,” Gonzales, 35, told Businessmirror. “We are playing better as a team every match.”

Gonzales and Alcantara improved on their performance in the first leg where they didn’t get past their first match.

The Filipinos forced their opponents into a tight exchange and even moved a point shy of closing out the opening set. They broke their rivals to stay in the match in second set, before engaging the Peruvians in a nip-and-tuck third set before yielding.

“We had four set points in the first but we just came up a little short,” said Gonzales, ranked 236th in the Association of Tennis Professionals World Tour doubles rankings. “We played a really good second set, but in the super tiebreaker, our level wasn’t quite as good and they executed better than us.”

Gonzales and Alcantara are parting ways to return to their ATP Tour routines for the rest of the year.

“I’m going to start playing ATP Challenger tournaments with my usual partner,” said Gonzales, referring to South African Ruan Roelofse who he paired with earlier this year in the Columbus (Ohio) Challenger.

“I think Francis is going to play some UTR tournament in California. We hope to play together more later this year,” he added.