MANILA – Filipino junior tennis star Francis Casey Alcantara successfully defended his ITF (International Tennis Federation) Phinma International Juniors (Week 1) title by overcoming his Japanese foe in straight sets.

Alcantara, the top seed of the event, trounced Yoshihito Nishioka, 7-5, 6-0, at the Rizal Memorial Tennis Center Sunday.

“I relaxed a bit in the first set. I thought it’s going to be all easy balls but it got really tight,” Alcantara said in an article on The Philippine Star.

“I recovered when I mixed my shots. He really hits his shots strong so I decided to tire him out by keeping him running in the second set,” added the 17-year-old netter.

Alcantara beat Chinese Tao Jun Nan, Italian Antonio Marcarelli, Thai Kittipong Chienwichai and Japanese Kazuma Kawachi en route to the final, according to the ITF website.

Meanwhile, the Girls’ Singles champion was Chinese Tian Ran, who beat Belgian Justine de Sutter, 6-2, 7-6(2).

Tian also claimed the Girls’ Doubles’ crown alongside Zhu Lin. The Chinese tandem defeated Vietnamese Trang Huynh Phuong Dai and German Katharina Lehnert, 6-2, 6-1.

A Japanese pair, meantime, took the Boys’ Doubles title. Kaichi Uchida and Soichiro Moritani won over Tao and Australian Jack Schipanski, 6-7(5), 6-3 (12-10).

The ITF Phinma International Juniors event continues with Week 2 beginning Tuesday. Alcantara and other top junior players are entered in the tilt that will run until Sunday.