Huey upbeat about creating Wimbledon ‘first’

TREAT Huey is confident his partnership with Max Mirnyi of Belarus can overcome the odds stacked against them in Thursday night’s Wimbledon men’s doubles semifinals.

The pair will gun for a historic finals spot against top seed Nicholas Mahut and Pierre-Hugues Herbert of France at Center Court of the All England Club following a pair of ladies’ semifinals matches in the afternoon.

No Filipino has ever reached the finals of a Grand Slam event. It is also Huey’s first semifinal appearance in men’s doubles of a major, although he reached that far in the mixed doubles of this year’s Australian Open with Slovenian Andreaj Klepac.

“We are looking forward and are ready for the semifinals tomorrow against Herbert and Mahut, the No. 1 team in the world,” Huey told this reporter via Twitter direct message.

“Should be a great match and hopefully we can cause an upset,” said Huey of the world No. 2 Mahut and world No. 3 Herbert.

Huey and Mirnyi barged into the semifinals after a rousing 6-4, 7-6 (7-5), 6-3 victory over Briton Jonathan Marray and Canadian Adil Shamasdin late Wednesday.

Tennis patron Jean Henri Lhuillier praised Huey’s solid play and said the star of the Cebuana Lhuillier-Philippine Davis Cup team only showed he could compete with the best.

“Treat is showing that Filipinos can be world-class in tennis and he’s doing it sans the hype and attention,” said Lhuillier. “This will augur well for the confidence of our Davis Cup team against Chinese-Taipei next week.”

Mahut and Herbert had a thornier path to the last four, besting Henri Kontinen of Finland and John Peers of Australia, 6-4, 6-7 (8-6), 6-4, 7-6 (10-8). Marc Anthony Reyes