Huey, Mirnyi into last 8; Lim falls to Spaniard

TREAT HUEY and partner Max Mirnyi demolished fourth seeds Rohan Bopanna and Florin Mergea, 6-4, 6-3, Sunday to barge into the men’s doubles quarterfinals of the Australian Open.

It took the 30-year-old Huey and the Belarusian just one hour and 11 minutes to dispose of Bopanna of India and Mergea of Romania to prevail at Show Court 2 of Melbourne Park.

Huey is also in the second round of the mixed doubles where he and Andreja Klepac of Slovakia will take on Alla Kudryavtseva of Russia and Robert Lindstedt of Sweden on Monday.

Filipino junior bet and 10th-seeded Alberto Lim Jr., however, bowed to unseeded Eduard Guell Bartrina of Spain, 6-4, 6-0.

Later, the fourth-ranked tandem of Lim and Egypt’s Youssef Hossam rolled to the second round after outlasting Rudolf Molleker of Germany and Corrado Summaria of Italy, 6-4, 3-6, 10-4

Bopanna and Mergea tried to overpower Huey and the 33-year-old Mirnyi with eight aces. While Huey and Mirnyi just had one ace, they made up for it with better first serve percentage, 76 against their opponents’ 54.

Huey is now looking for a first ever semifinal stint when they clash with Canada’s Daniel Nestor and Czech Republic’s Radek Stepanek who disposed of Spaniards Pablo Andujar and Pablo Carreno Busta, 5-7, 6-4, 6-4. Marc Reyes