Treat Huey and John-Patrick Smith of Australia could not convert when it mattered as they suffered a heartbreaking defeat, 7-6 (7-4), 6-7 (7-9), 9-11, to third seeds Andre Goransson of Sweden and Ben McLachlan of Japan in the finals of the Odlum Brown VanOpen held at the Hollyburn Country Club in Vancouver, Canada.
Huey and Smith, who teamed up for the first time, had their chances to clinch the title in the three-set down-the-wire finals against Goransson and McLachlan who were playing together as a pair for the 14th time,
The first set went according to serve as both sides proved evenly matched.
The unseeded Huey and Smith created some separation by going up 6-3 in the tiebreak before copping the first set.
The Filipino and Australian duo had their chance to close out the match in the second set when they broke serve for the first time in the 11th game to go up, 6-5. They went up 30-0 on Smith’s serve before Goransson and McLachlan powered back to break serve, also for the first time, and send the set to another tiebreak which they eventually won.
The 3rd set super tiebreak again presented Huey and Smith with plenty of opportunities as they went up 5-2 and had match point at 9-8. But Goransson, Sweden’s number one doubles player, and McLachlan, a former Australian Open semifinalist, proved steadier in the end game to win their 2nd ATP Challenger title in two weeks.
