Huey boosts Olympic doubles bid

FILIPINO Davis Cupper Treat Huey’s Olympic bid got a major boost after he and Belarusian partner Max Mirnyi barged into the quarterfinals of the Barcelona Open on Tuesday.

Huey and Mirnyi trounced Robert Linstedt of Sweden and Alexander Peya of Austria, 7-6 (7-5), 3-6, (10-7) and will next take on the winner between Spaniards Pablo Carreno Busta and David Marreno and the pair of Rohan Bopanna of India and Jean-Julien Rojer of the Netherlands.

“Max and I are a full-time team playing everything together,” Huey told the Inquirer on Twitter. “We are playing Barcelona this week, Estoril, Portugal next week, Madrid Masters after that and Rome Masters after that.”

He said they will take one week off before seeing action in the French Open on May 22 to June 5.

Prior to the ATP Top 500 tournament, Huey already surged in the world doubles ranking to 25th from 33rd at the end of 2015.

Huey needs to break into the top 10 by June to automatically make the Rio de Janeiro Olympics in August. He could either team up with Francis Casey Alcantara or Ruben Gonzales in the Games.

The 30-year-old Huey rose to No. 25 after his pairing with Mirnyi won in Acapulco, Mexico, earlier this year, made the quarterfinals of the Australian Open and the Monte Carlo Open and the semifinals of the Miami Open.