Qureshi, Lipsky blast Huey, pal in final

MANILA, Philippines - Treat Huey failed to get back at Aisam Ul Haq Qureshi of Pakistan as he and partner Scott Lipsky dropped a 3-6, 4-6 loss to Qureshi and Dutch Jean Julien Rojer in the men’s doubles finals of the Gerry Weber Open in Halle, Germany the other day.

Huey and Lipsky made it to the finals with a 7-6 (2), 6-2 victory over unseeded Germans Michael Kohlmann and Florian Mayer but the Fil-Am Davis Cup veteran fell short of his title bid after he and Briton Dominic Inglot topped the Birmingham Challenger last week.

Huey, however, is expected to get some ranking points for reaching the finals and should improve from his current ATP world doubles ranking of No. 39 together with Lipsky, ranked No. 43.

For Qureshi, who was not around when Huey and company beat Pakistan, 5-0, in their Asia-Oceania Zone Group II Davis Cup tie at the PCA’s Plaza Dilao courts last April, it was a repeat of his quarterfinal conquest of Huey in the quarterfinals of the French Open doubles last month.

Qureshi and Rojer breezed through the semis after smashing Poland’s Lukasz Kubot and Russia’s Mikhail Youzhny, 6-2, 6-4.

Huey and Lipsky also pulled off a shock 6-3, 5-7, 10-6 win over second seed Frantisek Cermak of the Czech Republic and Julian Knowle of Austria in the quarters.

Qureshi and Rojer, for their part, advanced to the semis after edging Sweden’s Johan Brunstorm and Germany’s Philippe Marx in a pulsating 7-6 (7), 6-7 (1), 10-7 in the other bracket.