FILIPINO ace Treat Huey and his British partner Dominic Inglot slipped past Mikhail Elgin of Russia and Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan, 6-3, 7-6 (7-5), late Saturday to reach the third round of the French Open men’s doubles at Roland Garros.
The pair, who also advanced this far last year, will tackle Sunday the French duo of Michael Llodra and Nicolas Mahut, who ousted Max Mirnyi of Belarus and Horia Tecau of Romania, 4-6, 7-6 (7-3), 7-5.
Huey and Inglot led in all statistics of the match, which lasted one hour and 14 minutes.
They hammered in six aces against their opponents’ three and had better first serves with 75 percent accuracy compared to their foes’ 73 percent.
Huey and Inglot subdued the German pair of Tobias Kamke and Florin Mayer in the first round, 7-6 (5), 6-4, while Elgin and Istomin stunned Santiago Gonzalez of Mexico and Scott Lipsky of the US, 1-6, 6-3, 6-4.
Istomin is best remembered for powering Uzbekistan to a 3-2 win over the Philippines in their 2008 Davis Cup tie in Manila.
Huey and Inglot will be facing Loodra and Mahut, who rose to fame for playing the longest match ever (11 hours and 5 minutes) against American John Isner during the 2010 Wimbledon. Marc Anthony Reyes