Nadal begs off from semis doubles versus Huey, pal

MANILA, Philippines - A rare confrontation between seven-time French Open singles champion Rafael Nadal and Fil-Am Treat Conrad Huey will not happen.

This after Nadal, who has teamed up with fellow Spaniard Marcel Granollers in the doubles, begged off in the last minute to focus on his singles division in the ongoing Gerry Weber Open in Halle, Germany.

Nadal’s decision paved the way for unseeded Germans Michael Kohlmann and Florian Mayer to march to the semifinals where the duo will be pitted against Huey and his partner, American Scott Lipsky.

Huey and Lipsky made it this far by coming through with a shock 6-3, 5-7, 10-6 triumph over second seed Frantisek Cermak of the Czech Republic and Julian Knowle of Austria a few days back.

There were some hopes by the Filipinos, perhaps Huey himself, that the win would forge an interesting showdown with Nadal, the best clay court player, assuming the latter and Granollers win their quarterfinal match.

It wasn’t to be.

Huey is using this weeklong tournament to continue his campaign a few days after he leapt from outside the Top 40 in the world to as high as No. 39 this week.

Top seed Aisam Ul Haq Qureshi of Pakistan and Jean Julien Rojer of the Netherlands edged Sweden’s Johan Brunstorm and Germany’s Philippe Marx in a pulsating 7-6 (7), 6-7 (1), 10-7 decision to advance to the semis in the other bracket.

Qureshi, who was part of the tandem that beat Huey and another partner in the Franch Open doubles, and Rojer will thus take on Poland’s Lukasz Kubot and Russia’s Mikhail Youzhny, who trounced Canada’s Milos Raonic and Adil Shamasdin, 6-3, 7-5.