Huey highlights Glenmore field

Having grown up about five minutes apart, Treat Huey and Othmane Garma have known each other for several years. They have frequently practiced together, but never have they played a real match.

That will change tonight when the two square off in the $10,000 Virginia State Open Clay Court Championships at Glenmore Country Club. Play gets under way at 5:30 p.m. and is free and open to the public.

The tournament, which is only open to state residents or players from state schools, features a 32-player men’s draw and six-player women’s draw and runs through Monday.

“It’s a great tournament at Glenmore — they do such a great job running it,” said Huey, the former Virginia star. “I’m excited for it.”

Huey, who hails from Alexandria, and Garma, a former player at Howard who is from Falls Church, are scheduled to play at 7 p.m.

“It’s different than playing somebody you don’t know or don’t like,” said Huey, when asked about the matchup, “but it’s fine. I’ll just go into the match and, either way, have a good time and hopefully play some good tennis.

“He’s a big guy — like 6-foot-4 — who likes to hit from the baseline. It should be a good match.”

Huey is the defending singles and doubles champion in the event.

Last June, he partnered with former teammate Teddy Angelinos. This time around, he’ll be playing with another former teammate, Andrew Downing.

As a professional, Huey has elected to focus primarily on doubles. Playing mostly with former teammate Somdev Devvarman, Huey — who still holds Virginia’s school record for career doubles wins — has a current ranking of 354.

Huey’s goal is get the ranking high enough so that he and Devvarman can qualify for a Grand Slam event by next year.

“I feel like I have a better chance of making it big time in doubles, so I’m really focusing on that,” Huey said. “We just need to keep moving up the rankings and make the cut, which is usually like 100 or 150.

“If we keep progressing like we have been, hopefully by next year we should be playing in them.”

If Huey can get past his buddy Garma tonight, his toughest competition at Glenmore could come from No. 2 seed Martin Sayer, a former Radford player who defeated Huey in Davis Cup in March. Sayer was playing for Hong Kong, while Huey was representing the Philippines.

On the women’s side, defending champion Tatsiana Uvarova, a former player at VCU, is the favorite.