Filipino men’s doubles star Treat Huey’s climb back to the ranks of the tennis elite got a huge lift as he and American partner Max Schnur won the €45,730 ATP Challenger at the Hamburger Tennis Verband in Hamburg, Germany.
The top-seeded Huey and Schnur encountered their toughest foes the entire tournament in unseeded hometown bets Dustin Brown and Julian Lenz in Saturday’s men’s doubles finals. Huey and Schnur outsteadied the veteran German-Jamaican Brown and the 2011 US Open boys double champion Lenz, 7-6 (8-6), 6-4 on Saturday (Manila time).
Huey and Schnur did not drop a set in the tournament, but they had to dig deep in the trenches in the finals against a determined opposing pair who did not want to disappoint the local fans.
The opening set went in the way of the servers until it extended to a tiebreak. Huey and Schnur found themselves in danger of finally losing a set for the first time the entire week as they trailed 3-6. But not only did they save three break points but they pocketed the next five points to win the first set.
The second set proved to be another tight battle but once again, Huey and Schnur scored during the crucial moments as they broke Brown’s serve in the seventh game to go up 4-3.
Brown and Lenz still managed to give themselves a chance in the 10th game as they saved two match points to get to deuce at the receiver’s choice with a chance to tie at 5-all. But Huey would have none of it as he closed out the match with an ace to earn for himself his third doubles title for the year in the ATP Challenger tour.
The recent Vietnam SEA Games men’s doubles gold medalist, the 37-year-old Huey reached a career-high ranking of 18th in the world in 2016 after he made the semifinals of Wimbledon and the quarterfinals of the Australian Open that year. A spate of injuries in recent years led to his free fall in the world rankings. But he is now back to being ranked 100th in the world and could see his standing go up even further after this title win.
