Metro Manila (CNN Philippines) — Filipino tennis ace Treat Huey and Belarusian partner Max Mirnyi took home their first ever ATP World Tour doubles title.
The fourth-seeded tandem claimed top honors after upsetting the third-seeded pairing of Alexander Peya and Philipp Petzschner 7-6(5), 6-3 on Sunday (Monday, February 28 PHT) at the Abierto Mexicano Telcel in Acapulco, Mexico.
Huey and Mirnyi have only been playing together for two months, but with a quarterfinal finish in the recently concluded Australian Open and a semifinal finish in the Delray Open in Florida, Mirnyi said the pair has gone from strength to strength.
“I told Treat that even though we’ve only been together for two months, we’ve been through a lot,” Mirnyi said in an interview with atpworld.com.
“We’ve improved on our teamwork and things we need to do. Luckily today, in a big tournament like Acapulco, everything clicked.”
The Acapulco title is Huey’s seventh career doubles crown, and he had to battle through some physical discomfort to get it.
“I was feeling pretty sick the first few days and could barely get out of bed, but as Max said we just need to find a way,” said Huey in an interview with ATP.
“We did and we’ve been playing great tennis all week. It’s great to win a title and we’re having fun.”
Huey will next see action with the Philippine Davis Cup team against Kuwait in Manila from March 4 to 6.
