By KRISTEL SATUMBAGA
Fil-American Treat Huey is retiring from professional tennis following his exit in the doubles qualifying round of the Mubadala Citi DC Open in Washington, United States.
Huey and his American partner Marcos Giron yielded to Kazakhstan’s Alexander Bublik and Netherlands’ Tallon Griekspoor, 5-7, 7-6 (8), 10-8, marking his final appearance in the tour that spanned more than a decade.
“It’s definitely pretty emotional… Growing up as a kid, I was like, ‘I’d love to be good enough to play this tournament one time’, and ended up playing it a couple times, winning it once. So it was an absolute dream come true,” the eight-time ATP doubles titlist said in an interview with atptour.com.
“It was amazing I played for 14, 15 years, so I had an amazing time,” he added.
The 37-year-old national team member and veteran Davis Cupper was honored in the tournament in recognition of his retirement from pro tennis.
A doubles specialist, Huey turned pro in 2008 and went on to play 18 times in the ATP World Tour. Among his significant achievements was becoming the first Filipino player to reach the doubles semifinals at the Wimbledon with Belarusian partner Max Mirnyi in 2016.
He also played in the mixed doubles, reaching the semis of the 2016 Australian Open with Slovenian Andrea Klepac.
He also ranked as high as No. 18 in the ATP doubles ranking in 2016.
His last title came in October last year where he and American Max Schnur won the Hamburg Challenger 80 in Germany.
Apart from the pro circuit, Huey has also represented the country in the Southeast Asian Games where he won multiple gold medals. He also donned the country’s colors in the Davis Cup, steering the country to the elite Group I in the elite Group I in the then Asia Oceania format in 2011.
Following his retirement, Huey will serve as an assistant coach for the University of Virginia where he is an alumnus.
