Huey, Belarus pal advance to quarterfinal

MANILA, Philippines - Sustaining their fiery form, Fil-Am netter Treat Huey and his Belarus partner Max Mirnyi toppled a higher-ranked opponent to advance to the quarterfinals of the Australian Open doubles yesterday in Melbourne.

The 14th seeded Huey and Mirnyi bundled out No.4 pair Rohan Bopanna of India and Florin Mergea of Romania, 6-4, 6-3, to arrange a Last-8 battle with unseeded Daniel Nestor of Canada and Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic. Nestor and Stepanek eked out a 5-7, 6-4, 6-4 victory over Spaniards Pablo Andujar and Pablo Carreño Busta.

Huey, who started partnering with former world No. 1 doubles player Mirnyi only this year, had actually matched his personal best so far, a quarterfinal stint previously achieved in the  2013 US Open and the 2014 Australian Open with former partner Dominic Inglot of Britain, and he would love to surpass this time.

Huey and Mirnyi showed great chemistry in dispatching third-round rivals Bopanna and Mergea in one hour, 11 minutes, pouncing on their rivals’ errors that included eight double faults en route to the straight sets win.

The Fil-Am ace is also in the hunt in the mixed doubles event, where he and partner Andreja Klepac are through to the second round.

Meanwhile, top Phl junior bet AJ Lim suffered a crushing defeat in the opener of boys’singles.

The 10th-seeded Lim couldn’t get his game going and yielded a 6-4, 6-0 defeat to unranked Eduard Guell Bartrina of Spain to take the early exit.

Lim will try to rebound in the boys’ doubles, where he is teaming up with Youseff Hossam of Egypt. Lim and Hossam, who are seeded fourth, will open their bid against Ukraine’s Rudolf Molleker and Italy’s Corrado Summaria.