Lhuillier elated with Alcantara's rise in world rankings

Cebuana Lhuillier Sports Ambassador Francis Casey Alcantara is off to a hot start in 2024, reaching the doubles final in one tournament and making the semis in the another event in Nonthaburi, Thailand.

He has now achieved his career-best world doubles ranking of 176 and no one is prouder and more thrilled than Unified Tennis Philippines (UTP) president Jean Henri Lhuillier who has been supporting Alcantara’s tennis career for a long time now.

Lhuillier elated with Alcantara’s rise in world rankings

“I am so happy to witness Nino’s steady-rise in the world rankings. I know how hard he has been training and campaigning for several years now. It was too just too bad that his momentum before was halted by the pandemic, but now that he is able to compete fully, we can expect him to continue rising and hopefully be in the top 100 by end of the year,” said Lhuillier.

Alcantara is actually just continuing where he left off in 2023 after winning his last tournament of the year in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. He is aiming for an even higher ranking as he competes in four more tough tournaments in India.

“I just want to continue improving my game and hopefully what follows is more improvement in the world rankings. I would like take the opportunity also to all my supporters especially Jean Henri Lhuillier and Cebuana Lhuillier for always being there for me,” said Alcantara, who paired with Sun Fajing of China at the Bangkok Open 2 Challenger in Thailand but lost to Frenchmen Gregoire Jacq and Manuel Guinard in the final, 6-4, 7-6 (6).

Alcantara is a former Australian Open Doubles juniors champion and a Southeast Asian Games gold medalist along with partner Ruben Gonzales.