GB’s Patten & Finn Heliovaara triumph in Melbourne

At around 02:00 local time in Melbourne, Finland’s Harri Heliovaara and Britain’s Henry Patten won the Australian Open men’s doubles title.

Patten, 28, and Heliovaara, 35, teamed up just nine months ago but the Wimbledon champions celebrated their second Grand Slam triumph in the space of six months on Saturday.

After missing 10 set points in an epic 34-point first-set tie-break against Italians Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori, Patten and Heliovaara fought back to win 6-7 (16-18) 7-6 (7-5) 6-3 after more than three hours on court.

Addressing Heliovaara in his post-match interview on a near-empty Rod Laver Arena, Patten said: “Wow, what a journey we have been on.

You guys are a little crazy, but I love you for it, the Briton continued, “I want to thank everyone who came out here and watched us play.”

Moments later, Patten scored an ace to seal the victory by securing the second of two break points with the same means as he had already saved his serve, and the ball fell to the floor in celebration.

At 1:42 a.m., it was finished, in front of a small group of devoted supporters, an exhausting three hours and four minutes of play.

Vavassori thanked the tournament’s organizers after the match, but he objected to holding the men’s doubles final so late after the women’s singles final.

Addressing tournament director Craig Tiley, Vavassori said:” You are doing an amazing job. Hopefully, next year, you can change the time of the doubles finals. I don’t think it’s good for doubles to not have so many people watching.

Thank you to everyone who makes this tournament possible, “This is the best tournament in the world for me.” In the next year, I wish that doubles will grow because it’s a great sport, like singles”.

While Patten is the third Briton, after Jamie Murray and Joe Salisbury, to win multiple men’s doubles titles this century, Heliovaara is the first Finnish player to achieve that feat.

When Patten and Heliovaara played with other partners in the second round of the Australian Open, they both left just 12 months prior.

Although Heliovaara initially turned down a partnership with Patten, they have never looked back since taking the ATP title in Marrakech in their debut competition.

They have quickly established themselves as one of the top men’s doubles teams, winning a total of half of the Slam competitions.

Heliovaara, who stopped playing tennis professionally between 2013 and 2017, said: “Doubles is a team sport, so the most important thing is to find yourself a good partner. That seems to have been pretty well done, in my opinion.