January 31, 2009. Francis Casey Alcantara of the Philippines (ITF Juniors ranked 29th as of January 26, 2009)  and Cheng-Peng Hsieh of Chinese Taipei (ITF Juniors ranked 30th as of January 26, 2009) are Australian Open 2009 champions in the boys’ doubles final, defeating the unseeded duo of Mikhal Biryukov of Russia and Yasutaka Uchiyama of Japan 6-4 6-2.

The victory gave Alcantara the first ever Grand Slam title to be won by a Filipino tennis player. In 1985, Filipino youngster Felix Barrientos, who was then ranked No. 1 in the world in the junior circuit reached the semifinals of the Wimbledon juniors singles. Three decades earlier, in 1953, Felicisimo "Mighty Mite" Ampon annexed the Wimbledon Plate-winning over first- and second-round losers of the Wimbledon men's singles.

The seventh seeded pair of Alcantara and Hsieh, who had been playing together only since the start of 2009, dominated their rivals at the Margaret Court Arena.

In the 43-minute match, they won 87 per cent of first serve points over Biryukov and Uchiyama, who were much-touted after they humbled the top seeds Yuki Bhambri and Liang-Chi Huang in their previous match.  Yuki Bhambri went on to claim the junior boys’ singles title in the Australian Open.

Saturday's title is Hsieh's third junior Grand Slam doubles championship, added to last year's winning at both Melbourne Park and Wimbledon.

Alcantara’s win somehow compensated for his first-round upset loss to unseeded Swede Daniel Berta in the boys' singles where he was the No. 10 seed.

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Related Stories

Marc Anthony Reyes. RP boy triumphs in Aussie Open: Alcantara is first Pinoy to win in a Grand Slam, Philippine Daily Inquirer, February 1, 2009. 
Online: http://sports.inquirer.net/breakingnews/breakingnews/view/20090201-186753/RP-boy-triumphs-in-Aussie-Open

Update: Alcantara, Hsieh win Aussie Open doubles, GMA TV News, 01/31/2009. Online:
 http://www.gmanews.tv/story/146815/Update-Alcantara-Hsieh-win-Aussie-Open-doubles-crown

Filipino, Chinese partner bag Aussie Open junior doubles title, abs-cbnNEWS.com, Janurary 31, 2009.  Online:
http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/sports/01/31/09/filipino-chinese-partner-bag-australian-opens-jr-doubles-finals

Alcantara, Taiwan partner win boy's doubles at Open
Manila Times, Sunday, February 01, 2009.  Online:
http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2009/feb/01/yehey/sports/20090201spo4.html