MANILA, Philippines – The unheralded duo of Fil-Am Treat Conrad Huey and Polish Jerzy Janowicz continued their giant-slaying ways as they downed the seasoned pair of James Blake and Mardy Fish of the United States, 7-5, 6-2, to gatecrash into the semifinals of the $5 million BNP Paribas Open doubles in Indian Wells today.
Huey and Janowicz, unseeded in this weeklong event, thus arranged a semis showdown with the winner of the match pitting the tandem of Great Britain's Colin Fleming and Australia's Paul Hanley with the duo of Austria's Alexander Peya and Brazil's Bruno Soares, who were playing as of posting time.
Huey, a Southeast Asian Games gold medalist who helped the Phl beat Pakistan in their Asia-Oceania Davis Cup Group Two tie at the Plantation Bay in Lapu Lapu, Cebu last month, and Janowicz looked good together in their first team-up.
Huey, who is hoping to do good here to earn more points and improve on his current doubles ranking of No. 36, has bounced back from a first round exit in the Abierto Mexicano Telcel in Acapulco, Mexico where he and old Brit partner Dominic Inglot crashed out as early as the opening round two weeks back.
Janowicz, who is currently ranked No. 24 in the world, has already improved on a quarterfinal finish in a tournament in Marseille, France, where he paired with Denmark's Frederik Nielsen three weeks ago.
In the other quarters pairings, top seed Mike and Bob Bryan of the US turned back the feisty duo of Polish Lukasz Kubot and Serbian Janko Tipsarevic, 6-7 (4), 6-4, 10-7, and Mexican Santiago Gonzalez and American Scott Lipsky overcame Croatian Ivan Dodig and Brazilian Marcelo Melo, 4-6, 6-3, 7-5, to set up an interesting semis duel.