Continuation
But Casey Alcantara?s memory and the admiration for his father lingers on and when he spoke of his late father and dedicated his victory to him, there was a moment of understandable emotion.

Like Manny Pacquiao, who has been an incredible source of inspiration to Filipinos, Alcantara wants to solidify his claim to being what he calls ?the tennis version of Pacquiao.? ?Like Pacquiao, I?m trying to do my best so Filipinos will look forward to me in the future.?

To Alcantara, Pacquiao is his inspiration. He said all the Filipinos look forward to seeing him in action and look up to him. And just like in the Pacman?s case, Filipinos followed his progress in Melbourne. ?Filipinos are looking for heroes in sports. They are hungry for heroes.?

The problem for Alcantara at present is how to combine his studies and tennis. A student at Xavier University in Cagayan de Oro, he confesses the difficulty of managing the time. His present plans are to finish high school and ?then see what happens.?

While there is a lot of hard work as well as pressure, Alcantara derives loads of fun meeting friends from different countries and traveling, but concedes that at times, it becomes tough. ?You miss your parents, family, friends, but it?s life?s experience for me.?

When attending classes he practices for around two hours a day because with school and other demands on his time, he says ?it?s tiring.?

Having won his first grandslam doubles, Alcantara is looking forward to another one, but promises he won?t feel comfortable merely playing doubles as some Asians tend to do after they win a tournament. To be continued