Huey, pal post first round win in France

FILIPINO-AMERICAN Treat Conrad Huey and Ken Skupski of Great Britain shocked the No. 4 pair of German Phillipp Marx and Canadian Adil Shamasdin, 7-6 (5), 6-1, in the first round of the prestigious 2012 Open Sud de France men’s doubles being held at the 14,000-seater Arena in Montpellier, France.

Huey and Skupski bucked a slow start and exploded in the second set to earn a quarterfinal seat in the Association of Tennis Professional (ATP) World Tour 250 event.

The Filipino-british tandem will be gunning for a spot in the semifinals as they go up against Olivier Rochus of Belgium and Igor Zelenay of Slovakia, who defeated Johan Brunstrom of Sweden and Jarkko Nieminen of Finland, 6-4, 7-6 (9).

For reaching the quarterfinals, Huey and Skupski are now assured of 3,560 Euros and 45 ATP ranking points.

In other matches, veterans Nikolay Davydenko and Igor Kunitsyn of Russia posted a convincing 6-2, 6-1 victory over siblings Gael and Daryl Monfils of France while Dustin Brown of Germany and Lovro Zovko of Croatia nailed the day’s biggest upset by ousting No. 2 Frantisek Cermak and Lukas Dlouhy of Czech Republic, 7-6 (5), 6-7 (4), 11-9.

Also advancing into the quarterfinals are No. 1 Colin Fleming and Ross Hutchins of Great Britain, No. 3 Jamie Murray of Great Britain and Paul Hanley of Australia, and Nicolas Mahut and Edouard RogerVasselin of France.