Francis Casey “Niño” Alcantara, the first Filipino to win a grand slam, is currently the 14th best junior player in the world.

He stands at No. 14 in the International Tennis Federations’ Junior Rankings with 568.75 points (385 points from singles, and 183.75 from doubles).

Jun Toledo, Alcantara’s coach, told abs-cbnNEWS.com, his immediate goal for Niño is “as of now, to be No. 1 at the end of the year.”

Toledo, a formers Davis Cup doubles specialist, pointed out that Alcantara has beaten higher-ranked players in singles, including Liang-Chi Huang from Chinese Taipei (Taiwan), now the No. 4 junior player.

But he added that his goal could also be achieved whether Alcantara makes it to the Top 4.
 

Doubles success

The 17-year-old netter from Cagayan de Oro has had more successes as a doubles player, with five junior doubles titles under his belt.

In January, Alcantara and partner Cheng-Peng Hsieh of Chinese Taipei won the Australian Open Junior Boys' Doubles.

He won another major doubles title recently in Malaysia with partner Daniel Berta from Sweden at the 13th Sarawak Chief Minister's Cup.

With his recent victories in doubles, it just follows that Alcantara’s team is focusing on the doubles division.

When asked why their focus is on the doubles and not singles, Toledo reasoned, “There’s a lot of good players.”

He also cited Alcantara’s two big doubles victories this year at the Australian Open and in Malaysia.

But Toledo noted that hopefully, Alcantara is confident in playing singles.

Alcantara sees action today in singles as the second-seed at the 20th Mitsubishi-Lancer International Juniors Championships in Manila.

Last year, he made it to the semifinals where he lost in three sets.

Tomorrow, he will play doubles at the Rizal Memorial Tennis Center.

Gearing up for the French Open

Meanwhile, Toledo shared that Alcantara and his team are setting their sights on the next grand slam, the Roland Garros in Paris, France.

Although Alcantara is more accustomed to playing on hard courts than on clay, Toledo assured that his charge has time to get used to the clay surface.

“In May, he will go to Italy. The Italian tournaments are all clay. So there’s time to prepare,” noted Toledo.

As for talks that Alcantara might not be able to play for the Philippine team when it goes against Pakistan in July, Toledo noted that hopefully there will be time for Niño to play.

The conflict in the Davis Cup schedule cited in earlier reports was because of Wimbledon.

This year’s Wimbledon at the All England Club ends on July 5 while the RP-Pakistan tie is scheduled on July 8.