MANILA, Philippines - Fil-Am Treat Conrad Huey and Dominic Inglot of Great Britain played tough in the first set and put up a tougher stand in the second to complete a shock 6-4, 7-6(1) win over seventh seed Aisam-ul-haq Qureshi of Pakistan and Rohan Bopanna of India as they barged into the quarterfinals of the Australian Open men’s doubles in Melbourne yesterday.
The Last 8 stint thus matched the duo’s best effort in a Grand Slam event after making it to the quarters in last year’s US Open.
Huey and Inglot will take on the winner of the duel between top seed Mike and Bob Bryan of the United States and the unheralded tandem of Eric Butorac of the US and Raven Klaasen of South Africa.
The win also avenged Huey and Inglot’s loss to Qureshi and Bopanna, 6-7 (3), 7-6 (5), 10-3, in the Apai International in Sydney, Australia last week.
Huey and Inglot made it to the quarters by repulsing Colombia’s Robert Farah and Juan Sebastian Cabal, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, in the opening round before subduing Italy’s Andreas Seppi and Potito Starace, 6-3, 6-7 (5), 6-1, in the next round.
Huey, the country’s top netter and veteran of the Davis Cup, and Inglot are out to gain ranking points and improve on their current world doubles rankings of Nos. 22 and 28, respectively.