American Raymond Sarmiento (right) hits a backhand volley as Filipino partner Francis Casey Alcantara moves in for support during their boys’ doubles finals match Saturday. (Photo by BOB DUNGO JR.)

Francis Casey Alcantara, who joined forces with new partner Raymond Sarmiento, retained his doubles title after a 6-4, 6-3 decision over fourth pick Sam Barry of Ireland and Ben McLachlan of New Zealand in the doubles finals of the 21st Mitsubishi Lancer International Junior Tennis Championships at the Rizal Memorial Tennis Center.

It was the second straight doubles crown for Alcantara, who teamed up with singles titlist Daniel Berta of Sweden for the title last year, while it was the first for Sarmiento, an American citizen with Filipino parents who is seeing action in Asia for the first time.

“We have great communication inside the court. I think that’s probably the key,” said Sarmiento.

“We played better this time, compared to our previous matches. We moved a lot inside to confuse our opponents and it worked,” added Alcantara, the country’s top junior player.

It was a sweet victory for the second-seeded tandem, who did not only bounce back from their separate third round exits in the singles event on Thursday, but also earned 100 ranking points from the International Tennis Federation (ITF).

Sarmiento’s and Alcanatara’s win came after unseeded Tian Ran of China shocked No. 7 Luksika Kumkhum of Thailand, 4-6, 7-5, 6-1, in the girls’ singles semifinals to arrange a championship date with top pick Irina Khromacheva of Russia, a 3-6, 6-2, 6-3 winner over sixth seed Caroline Garcia of France.

In the boys’ side, James Duckworth of Australia stormed into the finals with a 6-2, 7-6 (2) victory over No. 14 Dane Webb of the USA.

The Australian goes for the title today against No. 10 Tobias Blomgren of Sweden, who hammered out a 2-6, 7-6 (4), 6-1 triumph over No. 11 Ben Wagland of Australia.

With the cout tied at 3-3 in the second set, Sarmiento and Alcantara held serve in the seventh game and then broke through with a service break in the eighth before finishing off their rivals in the next game, completing the victory in one hour and 12 minutes.

On the way to the finals, Alcantara and Sarmiento, who had an opening round bye, disposed of Great Britain’s James Marsalek and  Ukraine’s Leonard Stakhovsky, 6-3, 7-6 (4), seventh seed Americans Mitchell Krueger and Dane Webb, 3-6, 6-4, 10-6 and eighth pick Robin Olin of Sweden and Matthias Wunner of Germany, 7-5, 6-3.