NATIONAL team mainstays Treat Huey and Ruben Gonzales are momentarily parting ways when they see action with different partners in the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) Cleveland Challenger in Ohio starting on Thursday.
Huey, coming off a month’s rest to heal a minor back injury, and The Netherlands’s Sem Verbeek are the top-seeded pair in the 16-team tournament. They take on JC Aragone of the US and Roberto Cid Subervi of the Dominican Republic at a still to be determined time in the tournament that offers a $52,000 champion’s prize at the the Cleveland Racquet Club.
Gonzales, on the other hand, has a familiar face for a partner, Nicolas Barrientos of Colombia. They will face Americans Matthew Chen and Jonathan Powell at at 6 a.m. (Manila time) also on Thursday.
“We’re playing with some confidence and see how we can do,” Huey, currently No. 119 in the ATP Tour doubles rankings, told BusinessMirror Sports in an overseas call on Tuesday. “As the No. 1 seed, there’s a little pressure, but that means you’ve done well in the last tournaments to be seeded that high.”
Gonzales, currently ranked 253rd doubles player in the world, and Barrientos played doubles in 2016 when they reached the final of the Gimecheon Challenger in Korea and Nanchang Challenger in China. They failed to win the crown in both tournaments.
Gonzales and Huey also teamed up in the 2019 Southeast Asian Games but yielded to compatriots Francis Casey Alcantara and Jeson Patrombon, 7-6, 7-5, in the final for a 1-2 Philippine finish.
Gonzales is coming off a quarterfinal finish with Alcantara as partner in the International Tennis Federation M25 tournament in Naples, Florida.
“It’s good to see Ruben here and play in the same tournament,” Huey said. “Hopefully, we’ll play in the final.”
Both players are bracketed on the same side of the draw.