Indian tandem boots out Treat Huey, Carsten Ball

Treat Huey and Australian partner Carsten Ball found the Indian tandem of Mahesh Bhupati and Rohan Bopanna too formidable and crumbled, 6-2, 6-2, Saturday in the men’s doubles second round of the Australian Open in Melbourne.

Bhupati, a two-time Grand Slam winner, and Bopanna, advanced to the third round against 13th seed Americans Scott Lipsky and Rajeev Ram.

The first-time partnership of Huey—ranked 55th in the world in doubles—and Ball committed 17 errors as against the seven of Bhupati and Bopanna. They had 15 winners, according to the match statistics, just one short of the Indians, who finished with 87 percent accuracy on first serves as against their victims’ 65 percent.

Meanwhile, promising Filipino netter Maika Jae Tanpoco barged into the semifinals of the Hong Kong ITF juniors before losing to Li HuiJie of China, 6-1, 6-1.

Li also ended the run of Marian Jade Capadocia in the quarterfinals with a 6-4, 6-1 victory. Tourney top seed Tamitha Nguyen lost in the second round to China’s Ying Zhang, 1-6, 6-2, 6-2.

In boys’ singles, Jurence Zosimo Mendoza bowed in the third round to Hong Kong’s Chun Hun Wong, 6-3, 6-2. Tanpoco and Nguyen also lost in the girls’ doubles quarterfinals.