MANILA, Philippines -- Fil-Am Treat Conrad Huey and Dominic Inglot of Great Britain played tough in the first set and tougher in the second as the pair shocked seventh seed Aisam-ul-haq Qureshi of Pakistan and Rohan Bopanna of India, 6-4, 7-6 (1), on Sunday to barge into the quarterfinals of the Australian Open.
The win arranged Huey and Inglot and quarters showdown with 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.
Huey and Inglot have matched their best effort in a Grand Slam event after also sneaking their way through the quarters of the US Open a year back.
It was also a triumph that avenged the Huey-Inglot duo’s stinging defeat at the hands of Qureshi and Bopanna, 6-7 (3), 7-6 (5), 10-3, in the Apai International in Sydney, Australia the week before.
Huey and Inglot made it this far by turning back Colombia’s Robert Farah and Juan Sebastian Cabal, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, in the opening round and Italy’s Andreas Seppi and Potito Starace, 6-3, 6-7 (5), 6-1, in the second.
Huey, the country’s top netter and veteran of the Davis Cup, and Inglot are hoping to do better in this Grand Slam event to gain ranking points and improve on their current world doubles rankings of Nos. 22 and 28, respectively.