FILIPINO Treat Huey and his Belarusian partner Max Mirnyi got past Oliver Marach of Austria and Fabrice Martin of France in a 6-3, 6-2 7-6 (3) victory in the third round of the Wimbledon Championship at the All England Lawn Tennis Croquet Club in London.
The 12th-seeded Huey and Mirnyi bucked their foes’ late comeback.
Huey and Mirnyi made a total 102 points during their one-hour, 52-minute game.
This put them in the quarterfinals against Jonathan Marray of England and Adil Shamasdin of Canada.
Marray and Shamasdin prevailed over 15th seed Pablo Cuevas of Uruguay and Marcel Granollers of Spain, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4, 3-6, 14-12, in a four-hour encounter.
In reaching the third round, Huey and Mirnyi won over Spanish duo Pablo Carreno Busta and Guillermo Garcia-Lopez in the first round, 6-3, 7-6 (5).
They then stopped Brazilian Marcelo Demoliner and Pakistani Aisam Qureshi in the second round, 6-4, 6-7 (7), 6-3.
For Huey and Mirnyi, this will be their second quarterfinal appearance in a Grand Slam event this year after making it to the quarterfinals in the Australian Open last January.
Meanwhile, Serena Williams admits she is shocked to be on the verge of meeting sister Venus in the Wimbledon final seven years after they last slugged it out for a Grand Slam title.
For the first time since 2009, both Serena and Venus have made it to the Wimbledon semi-finals and the All England Club is abuzz with nostalgic chatter about the potential for a surprise showdown between the American stars in Saturday’s final.
To make the dream match-up become a reality, defending champion Serena must beat Russian world number 50 Elena Vesnina on Thursday, while world number eight Venus plays Australian Open champion Angelique Kerber.
Between 2000 and 2010, Serena and Venus won a combined nine Wimbledon titles and made a total of 14 appearances in the final, with four of those being all-Williams affairs in 2002, 2003, 2008 and 2009.
But, just when it seemed the Williams’ duopoly in south-west London would never end, in 2011 Venus was struck down by Sjogren’s syndrome, an illness that causes fatigue and joint pain, and Serena’s win over her sister at Wimbledon in 2009 remains their last title clash.