Fil-American Treat Huey and Indonesian Christopher Rungkat started their 2022 Australian Open men’s doubles campaign on a bright note after advancing to the second round Wednesday.
Huey and Rungkat, who earned wildcard berths, bounced back from an opening-set loss and survived doubles specialists Rohan Bopanna of India and Edouard Roger-Vasselin of France, 3-6, 7-6 (2), 6-2.
The Southeast Asian pair rose from a 2-1 tiebreak deficit in the second set before finding their rhythm and dictating the tempo in the deciding third frame.
Huey and Rungkat, who were actually rivals in the Southeast Asian Games, broke their opponent’s serve twice in the third set to seal the win after one hour and 48 minutes.
The triumph arranged Huey and Rungkat a second-round meeting with the winner between Australian wildcard entries Dane Sweeney and Li Tu, and 16th seed Andrey Golubev of Kazakhstan and Franko Skugor of Croatia.
Huey’s best Grand Slam finish so far was a semifinal appearance at the 2016 Wimbledon with Max Mirnyi of Belarus.