Australia’s mixed doubles pair of  pairing of Lleyton Hewitt and Jarmila Gajdosova let a four point lead in their third and final set tiebreak against Fernando Verdasco and Anabel Medina Grrigues slip by to lose a heartbreaker to Spain in the 24^th Hopman Cup tie at Burswood Dome in Perth, Western Australia, Sunday.

The Aussie tandem raced to a 5-1 lead in the deciding set which was a race to ten before the Spanish duo clawed back with a four point run to level the score at 5-5.

Hewitt and Gajdosova worked themselves back to match point but somehow failed to capitalize and the Spanish pair clinched the set and the tie when Gajdosova had to serve to Verdasco who hammered a powerful return of serve that gave the Australian girl no chance at all.

Hewitt said “It was a bit disappointing that we had a match point and couldn’t get it done.”

Hewitt lost his first match of 2012 earlier in the day but more importantly passed an important fitness test against Verdasco who needed 128 minutes and three sets, 6-3 3-6 7-5, to beat the Australian.

Jarmila Gajdosova got Australia off to a 1-0 lead against Spain after overcoming  Anabel Medina Garrigues in three sets.

The Philippines Albert Lim’s giant-killing ways ended in the finals of the prestigious Junior Orange Bowl Boy 12 years when he lost 7-6/6-1 to top seed Artem Dubrivny of Russia.

After getting through the qualifying tournament, Lim racked up a string of impressive victories on the clay courts of Salvadore Park in Coral Gables City, Florida.

In the round of eight Lim had a tough first set against Barnaby Smith of Britain before winning the set 7-5 but raced through the second set 6-0 to set up a clash with the United States No. 1 player, No. 2 tournament seed and local favorite Alexander Del Corral.

Lim made short work of the American winning in straight sets 6-2/6-1 . He followed this up with a 6-2/6-1 victory over another American favorite, No. 9 seed Noah Makarome in the semi finals to set up a showdown against No. 1 seed Artem Dubrivny of Russia.

Collette Lewis reported that Dubrivny struggled with Lim’s power in the first few games of the match, falling behind 3-1, but the Russian recovered and began to  use drop shots with regularity and the much bigger Lim struggled moving forward.

Lewis said “Whether it was his 11 matches in nine days, his nerves or his opponent, Lim also didn’t serve as well as he had in his previous wins, and Dubrivny also attacked the second serves well.”

The 12-year-old from Moscow played a much steadier tiebreaker with Lim making several costly unforced errors. Dubrivny discovered short cross court angles to Lim’s forehand were especially effective in producing errors, and he built a 5-0 lead in the second set, although all those games were close ones.

Dubvriny said “Because he is so big, I have to move him a lot around the court.That’s the way to beat him.”

Dubvriny wasn’t familiar with Lim, who did not play the Eddie Herr, watching him play for the first time on Wednesday. But his strategy worked to perfection and he became the first Russian boy to win a Junior Orange Bowl title, although records are incomplete prior to 1998.

“I did not know I was the first,” said a smiling Dubrivny. “It feels great.”

The Philippines Albert Lim continues his giant-killing ways and has qualified for the finals of the prestigious Junior Orange Bowl Boys 12 years finals where he will face top seed Artem Dubrivny of Russia.

After getting through the qualifying tournament, Lim racked up a string of impressive victories on the clay courts of Salvadore Park in Coral Gables City, Florida.

In his opening match Lim beat No. 5 seed Tomas Etchverry of Argentina 3-6/6-1/6-1. He then blasted Francisco Catulo of Portugal 6-0/6-0 before whipping Jonathan Hefetz of Istrael 6-2/6-1.

In the round of eight Lim had a tough first set against Barnaby Smith of Britain before taking the set 7-5,  but raced through the second set 6-0 to set up a clash with the United States No. 1 player, No. 2 tournament seed and local favorite Alexander Del Corral.

Lim made short work of the American winning in straight sets 6-2/6-1 . He followed this up with a 6-2/6-1 victory over another American favorite, No. 9 seed Noah Makarome in the semi finals to set up a showdown against No. 1 seed Artem Dubrivny of Russia.

A story by Collette Lewis noted that Lim had won ten matches in the past eight days and showed no signs of tiring in his two matches on the same day against del Coral and Makarome.

Lim was described as “a powerfully built right-hander with serious pace on his serve and forehand.”

The Junior Orange Bowl International Twennis Championships has a rich history of attracting the most promising young tennis players in the world.

Among the outstanding players in past years were 2002 Under 14 winner and 2009 US Open champion Juan Martin Del Potro while other big name stars who saw action in one of the top tournaments for juniors in the world included Andy Roddick, Jim Courier and Andre Agassi.

Prior to the Junior Orange Bowl, the 12 year old Letran freshman won both the boys under 14 singles and doubles at the Pacific Coast Tennis Championships in Los Angeles.

Lim won the singles title with a 6-0/6-7/6-1 triumph over top seeded American Chase Lipscomb and teamed up with Robert Baylen to beat the American pair of Colter Smith and Ricky Smith  in the doubles finals 5-7/7-6/6-3.

Lim is a protégé of the Philippine Tennis Academy headed by Romy Chan.

Japan’s 21 year old Kei Nishikori has stunned World No. 1 Novak Djokovic of Serbia  in the semi finals of the Swiss Indoor Championships in Basel, Switzerland and will face former multi-titled Wimbledon champion Roger Federer in the finals.

A report from the Sports Network in Basel said Nishikori dropped the first set and barely won the second but played superb tennis to dominate the third to win 2-6, 7-6, 6-0 in two hours and 16 minutes.

The Japanese youngsters who is ranked No. 32 in the world broke  Dokovich five times in the match to seal the biggest win of his career.

Nishikori has only one career title while Djokovic has no less than 28.

Djokovic has won four Grand Slam titles and three this year; Nishikori has never advanced beyond the fourth round of any major tournament.

But  in recent months  Nishikori has been playing well and reached the semifinals for the third time in his last four tournaments.

The Japanese will try his best to prevent hometown favorite Federer from taking the Basel crown for the fifth time in the last six years.

The third-seeded Federer moved into the finals with a 7-6 (7-5), 6-2 win against countryman Stanislas Wawrinka. He won 80 percent of his first-serve points during a quick second set.

Federer has never before faced Nishikori, who notched his only career title in February of 2008 at Delray Beach and lost the final in Houston in April.

The 2011 Basel champion will collect $450,000.

The Philippines Davis Cup doubles specialist Treat Huey and Indian ace Somdev Devarrman have beaten Russia’s grandslam regular campaigners Igor Andreev and Igor Kunitsyn in the first round of the US Open tennis championships at the Arthur Ashe Stadium at Flushing Meadows in New York, 6-3/6-4.

The US Open is being telecast “live” by “BALLS” the cable sports station of ABS-CBN . The day session in New York will be telecast on September 2 at 11:00 p.m. while the September 3 night session will be telecast fron 7:00 a.m.to 10:30 a.m. over SkyCable Channel 34.

The win was Huey’s first in a grandslam event and is also Huey’s first main draw appearance in the US open. In addition it is the Fil-Am’s first time to secure an outright entry into a grandslam event because of his high No. 70 world ranking in doubles.

The past two years Huey made the main draw at Wimbledon through the qualifying rounds.

His doubles partner and former Virginia star Devarrman who is currently ranked No. 63 in the world in singles gave Britain’s Andy Murray, the No. 4 seed some problems at the beginning of their first round singles match but eventually lost in straight sets 7-6/6-2/6-3.

Huey and Devarrman got 64 percent of their first serves in compared to the 57 percent of Andreev and Kunitsyn and converted that into a 77 to 66 winning percentage while also besting the Russian pair 50-38 on their second serves.

Huey and Devarrman hammered home 7 winners to none for the Russian tandem in their court No. 15 match with the first set ending in 30 minutes and the second taking a little longer at 37 minutes.

The Philippines Davis Cup doubles specialist Treat Huey and Indian ace Somdev Devarrman have beaten Russia’s grandslam regular campaigners Igor Andreev and Igor Kunitsyn in the first round of the US Open tennis championships at the Arthur Ashe Stadium at Flushing Meadows in New York, 6-3/6-4.

The US Open is being telecast “live” by “BALLS” the cable sports station of ABS-CBN . The day session in New York will be telecast on September 2 at 11:00 p.m. while the September 3 night session will be telecast fron 7:00 a.m.to 10:30 a.m. over SkyCable Channel 34.

The win was Huey’s first in a grandslam event  and is also Huey’s first main draw appearance in the US open. In addition it is the Fil-Am’s first time to secure an outright entry into a grandslam event because of his high No. 70 world ranking in doubles.

The past two years Huey made the main draw at Wimbledon through the qualifying rounds.

His doubles partner and former Virginia star Devarrman who is currently ranked No. 63 in the world in singles gave  Britain’s Andy Murray, the No. 4 seed some problems at the beginning of their first round singles match but eventually lost in straight sets 7-6/6-2/6-3.

Huey and Devarrman got 64 percent of their first serves in compared to the 57 percent of Andreev and Kunitsyn and converted that into a 77 to 66 winning percentage while also besting the Russian pair 50-38 on their second serves.

Huey and Devarrman hammered home 7 winners to none for the Russian tandem in their court No. 15 match with the first set ending in 30 minutes and the second taking a little longer at 37 minutes.

The Filipino-Indian duo broke their rivals four times in the course of the match.

Philippine Davis Cup team doubles specialist Treat Huey and his partner Travis Parrott of the United States have won the doubles title at the Odlum Brown Vanopn presented by Invesco in Vancouver, Canada.

Huey and Parrott who were seeded No. 2 in the ATP Challenger tournament defeated No. 3 seeds Jordan Kerr of Australia and David Martin of the United States 6-2/1-6/16-14 in the finals.

They were favored by a walkover in the semi finals when the tandem of Vasek Pospisil of Canada and Bobby Reynolds pulled out after Reynolds suffered a left oblique strain in their quarter finals match.

Huey who soared to No. 70 in the ATP world rankings after his sixth challenger win in the last year had earlier overcome the British pair of Colin Fleming and James Ward in the quarter finals in straight sets 6-4/6-4. Ward went on to win the men’s singles title after beating hometown favorite Pospisil in the semi finals and Robbie Ginepri of the US by walkover in the finals .

Philippine Tennis Association Davis Cup administrator Randy Villanueva told the Inquirer “we expect Treat’s rankings to enter the top 60 soon because of his great showing this week.” Villanueva said “it is one hundred percent certain that Huey will be here to represent the Philippines in the Davis Cup tie against Chinese Taipei. ” The tie will be played at the picturesque Plantation Bay in Cebu on September 16, 17, 18.

It looked like Huey and Parrott would breeze to victory after winning the opening set of the finals 6-1 but were stunned by Kerr and Martin who roared back to take the second set by an identical 6-1 score, setting up a nail-biting final set to win $6,200 in prize money.

Huey and Parrott held their nerve to ultimately come through in a lengthy third set super tiebreak 16-14.

The Odlum Brown VanOpen presented by Invesco is known to consistently launch players to the top of Grand S lam tennis and many top players including Britain’s Andy Murray often include the VanOpen as part of their US Open preparations.

The President and CEO of Tennis Canada, Michael Downey said “The Odium Brown VanOpen just keeps getting better even though its already unquestionably the best challenger in all of North America.”

Fil-American doubles specialist Treat Conrad Huey and his Indian partner Somdev Devvarman have lost a 7-6/7-6 heartbreaker in the men’s doubles finals of the ATP Farmer’s Classic at the UCLA Los Angeles tennis stadium..

Huey and Somdev who were unseeded and had shocked the top seeds in the opening round of the doubles edged past the fourth seeded Israeli duo of Jonathan Erlich and Andy Ram in a tough three setter that lasted two hours to enter the finals. The score was 7-6/6-7/10-4.

However, in the finals Huey and Somdev had no such luck against the No. 3 seeded pair of MarkKnowles of the Bahamas and Xavier Malisse of Belarus and lost in back-to-back tie-breaks 6-7/6-7. .

In the semis Huey and Somdev nosed ahead after a stiff first set but could not stop their opponents from stretching the match to the Super Tie break.

However they prevailed over the Israelis, scoring points when it mattered most.

Philippine Tennis Association’s Davis Cup official Randy Villanueva told the Daily Inquirer that “this is Huey’s best showing so far on a big ATP world tour event.”

Last week Huey reached the quarter finals in the ATP World Tour event at the Atlanta Open which osalso part of the series leading to the US Open.

Huey who has teamed up with veteran Cecil Mamiit to carry the Philippines in its Asia-Oceania Group Davis Cup ties has promised to return in time to represent the Cebuana Lhuillier squad in the crucial clash with Chinese Taipei on September 16,17 and 18 at Plantation Bay in Lapu Lapu

Philippine Davis Cup doubles specialist Conrad Treat Huey and his partner, South Africa’s Izak Van Der Merwe have qualified for the main draw of the 2011 Wimbledon tennis championships in doubles.

Philippine Tennis Association executive Randy Villanueva informed the Daily Inquirer that Huey and Van Der Merwe qualified after winning back-to-back matches in the qualifier.

The 25 year old Huey who stands 5’10” and his 26 year old partner who stands 6/5” beat Czechoslovakia’s Leos Friedl and David Martin of the United States 7-6/6-1 to qualify after beating Rui Machado of Portugal and Travis Parrott of the United States 6-3/7-5 in their opening match.

Huey who has played some excellent doubles in recent months is ranked No 91 while Van Der Merwe is ranked No. 121.

The lanky South African from Old Dominion University reached the US NCAA semi finals in 2004-2005 and represented South Africa in the World Youth Cup team competition in 1998 and 2000.

The right handed Merwe complements the lefty Huey perfectly and make a solid doubles tandem.

Clarice Patrimonio, shows her winning form in the 43rd Brunei ITF girl’s singles finals which she won in handsome fashion 6-1, 6-0 against Chinese-Taipei’s giant killer Hsu.

She and Jrence Mendoza who won the boy’s doubles will compete next in Sarawak, Malaysia.