Treat Huey, London pal advance to 3rd round

MANILA, Philippines - Treat Conrad Huey kept the Philippine flag fluttering in the 2013 French Open as he and partner Dominic Inglot of Britain advanced to the third round of the men’s doubles play last Saturday at Roland Garros.

Huey and Inglot outclassed Russian Mikhail Elgin and Uzbek Denis Istomin, 6-3, 7-6 (5), to reach the Last-16 of the prestigious grandslam event in France for the second straight year.

The 27-year-old Huey, currently ranked 25th in doubles, and Inglot, a Londoner who is known for serving as the tennis double of actor Paul Bettany in the movie “Wimbledon,” used their accurate serves to get the better of their rivals. 

They had four aces against none for Elgin and Istomin, sending 75 percent of their first serve in and winning 18 of 24 (75 percent) of their first serve points.

Huey matched his career-best third-round appearance in a grandslam event and will seek to go deeper when he and Inglot battle Frenchmen Michael Llodra and Nicolas Mahut for a place in the quarterfinals.

Llodra and Mahut upstaged fifth seeds Max Mirnyi of Belarus and Hortia Tecau of Romania, 6-4, 6-7, 7-5, in their second-round encounter.

Fresh from a finals stint in the recent Swiss Indoors and in Dusseldorf, Huey and Inglot  started their French Open campaign with a 7-6(5), 6-4 victory over German duo Tobias Kamke and Florian Mayer.

Huey also competed in mixed doubles with American Raquel Kops-Jones but they quickly bowed out after suffering a 1-6, 2-6 loss to Shuai Chang of China and Julian Knowle of Austria in the opening stage.