Gonzales-Huey duo last PHL team standing in tennis doubles

INCHEON, South Korea — The doubles pair of Ruben Gonzales, Jr. and Treat Huey is the last medal hope left for Phl tennis.

Gonzales and Huey played true to form, blasting their Macau rivals Chan Chi Neng at Leung Ho Tin Marco, who are being coached by Isagani Limbaga, a Filipino based in the former Portuguese colony.

The duo dispatched them in straight sets, 6-0, 6-3, in just 50 minutes to advance to the quarterfinals against Korea on Saturday.

"Our goal is to make the medal round. We want to keep doing what we're doing. And we're one win away from making it to medal round," Huey said.

The promising start failed to spill over to the mixed doubles as they fell out of contention one after another.

Rains delayed the afternoon matches giving Gonzales and Huey ample time to rest for their separate mixed doubles matches. But even that didn't help their cause.

Gonzales and Fil-German Katharina Lehnert fell short of an upset and lost a heartbreaker to no. 3 seed Sanchai Ratiwatana and Peangtarn Plipuech, in the Round of 16.

The Filipino pair stormed back from one set down to force a tie-breaker.

In the race-to-10 tie-breaker, Gonzales and Lehnert were poised to book an upset when they led 6-2 but their seeded Thai rivals recovered and took a 6-3, 4-6, 11-9 victory to advance.

"It was tough. We had our chances. It sucks to lose today but I can't think of that too much, we have a game tomorrow with Treat and hope we do well and move to semifinals," Gonzales said.

Huey and Denise Dy failed to avert a mixed doubles shutout losing in straight sets, 3-6, 4-6, to fifth seed Danai Udomchoke and Tamarine Tanasugarn of Thailand.