Huey-Rungkat through to second round

Treat Huey practicing for the Australian Open. TREAT HUEY INSTAGRAM

Treat Huey and Indonesian partner Christopher Rungkat battled through strong winds and tough opponents on Wednesday to get to the second round of the Australian Open men’s doubles event.

The first-time partners won five straight points in the second set tiebreak to defeat Indian Rohan Bopanna and Frenchman Edouard Roger-Vasesselin, 3-6, 7-6 (2), 6-2, in one hour and 48 minutes on Court 5 of Melbourne Park.

“Chris and I are very pumped up with today’s result and we are looking forward to playing in the second round on Friday,” said Huey.

The wildcard entries will square off with the winners between the tandems of Australians Li Tu and Dane Sweeney, and 16th seeds Andrey Golubev of Kazakhstan and Franco Skugor of Croatia.

Huey needed time to adjust to the style of play of Rungkat, his former longtime rival in Davis Cup matches and regional competitions, on top of the prevailing wind conditions.

“It was a tough match, and windy throughout the match which made it even harder,” said Huey. “They came out firing and played a great first four games.”

But that didn’t faze the Asian tandem as it fought through a seesaw second set before using a big Huey forehand winner to break a 2-2 tie in the tiebreak.