Philippines’ No. 1 netter Treat Huey and Max Mirnyi of Belarus escaped an early exit at the French Open doubles Wednesday night after winning a tight opening round match against unfancied foes at the Roland Garros claycourt.
Huey and Mirnyi, seeded 10th in this Grand Slam event, rose from a close first set before outplaying Italian pair Fabio Fognini and Andreas Seppi, 6-7 (3), 7-6 (5), 6-1.
It was a hard-earned victory for Huey and Mirnyi, who are only competing in their second Grand Slam tournament after pairing up last January. They are eyeing to match or surpass their quarterfinal finish at the Australian Open five months ago.
Up next for Huey and Mirnyi are Lithuania’s Ricardas Bernankis and Czech Republic’s Lukas Rosol, who also endured a 6-7 (3), 7-6 (9), 6-4 triumph over Brazil’s Marcelo Demoliner and Croatia’s Marin Draganja.
Huey is also pairing up with Slovenian Andreja Klepac in the mixed doubles for the second time as they try to eclipse their semifinal finish also at the Australian Open last January.
Huey and Klepac will face Georgia’s Oksana Kalashnikova and Netherlands’ Jean-Julien Rojer in the first round.
It would be a dangerous opening round for Huey and Klepac as Rojer boasts of a 2014 French Open mixed doubles crown with a different partner.