MANILA, Philippines - Filipino junior netter AJ Lim followed men’s campaigner Treat Huey to the showers of the 2017 Australian Open after suffering twin defeats in the boys’ singles and doubles yesterday at the Melbourne Park.
Seeded 16th in the singles, Lim took a 4-6, 6-7 (3) beating from unseeded French Maxence Broville in the early morning sessions and bowed out after the second round.
Broville unloaded nine aces against Lim, who could only get in three of his own, and won 84 percent of his first serve, to beat the latter for a place in the Round of 16.
Hours later, the 17-year-old Lim teamed up with American Alexandre Rotsaert and conceded a 0-6, 6-2, 8-10 heartbreaker to their fourth-seeded Taiwanese Yu Hsiou Hsu and Chinese Lingxi Zhou.
Lim and Rotsaert appeared headed for a victory when they led at 6-2 in the deciding super tiebreak but Hsu and Zhou rallied to force a tie at 8.
Hsu and Zhou then broke Lim and Rotsaert in the next two games to steal the win.
Lim’s exit left Phl without an entry in the running as Huey had already bombed out over in the men’s division, where he competed in the singles, doubles and mixed doubles events.