Mirnyi, Lopez too tough for Huey, Israeli partner

TREAT Huey and partner Jonathan Erlich of Israel found  the  tandem of Feliciano Lopez of Spain and Max Mirnyi of Belarus just too tough Sunday and crashed out in the third round of the Australian Open men’s doubles.

The 6-foot-5 Mirnyi, a six-time Grand Slam champion in doubles, and Lopez needed just an hour and two minutes to stop the new partnership of Huey and Erlich, 7-5, 6-3, on Court No. 3 at Melbourne Park.

Ranked 50th in the world in doubles and 14th in singles, the 6-foot-2 Lopez proved to be the perfect partner  for Mirnyi as they broke Huey and Erlich twice in the second set to secure the win

The tall Mirnyi-Lopez combination dropped five aces to the three of Huey and Erlich and whipped up 29 winners against 18 by Huey and Erlich who also didn’t had any breakpoint opportunity.

Huey and long-time partner Dominic Inglot parted ways and sought new teammates to make sure they get into the Grand Slam main draw after dropping in their respective rankings.

Huey fell to 53rd from as high as 20th around this time last year, while Inglot is currently at 45th from 18th.  Marc Anthony Reyes