Unseeded Henry Patten and Harri Heliovaara win doubles crown in epic Wimbledon final
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Finland's Harri Heliovaara (left) and Britain's Henry Patten ousted seeded pairs en route to the final.
PHOTO: REUTERS
LONDON – Britain’s Henry Patten and Finland’s Harri Heliovaara beat Australians Max Purcell and Jordan Thompson 6-7 (7-9), 7-6 (10-8), 7-6 (11-9) in the men’s doubles final at Wimbledon on July 13 to clinch their first Grand Slam title together.
The unseeded duo started playing together only three months ago but ousted seeded pairs en route to the final to meet the 15th seeds, who had knocked out the top seeds Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos in the semi-finals.
Remarkably, the match had no breaks of serve as each set went into a tiebreak and with the pressure mounting with each game, Patten and Heliovaara saved three championship points in the second set to force a decider.
After nearly two hours and 49 minutes, Patten, a former Wimbledon statistician, and his partner edged out the Australians to win an epic match, receiving a standing ovation from the Centre Court crowd.
“It couldn’t have been a closer match. I can’t really remember what happened. I’m sure Harri’s the same,” Patten said.
While Patten had never moved past the third round at a Slam before, Heliovaara had reached two men’s doubles quarter-finals and won the 2023 US Open mixed doubles title with Kazakhstan’s Anna Danilina. The emotions got the better of the Finnish player, who was seen sobbing on the court.
“I admit we got a bit lucky today but sometimes we need luck to win a tennis match... The tears say it all, it’s very emotional,” he said.
In an entertaining and nail-biting first set, the Australian duo were virtually unstoppable on serve, losing just two points but Patten and Heliovaara were also up to the task.
It was initially one-way traffic in the tiebreak, as Purcell and Thompson forged ahead when the British-Finnish duo made several errors, giving them five set points. Patten stepped up under pressure to save four, but Purcell and Thompson rediscovered their rhythm and took the set when Heliovaara’s return went just wide.
The Australians continued to serve well in the second set, with Patten and Heliovaara having no answers on how to break them even as the set went with serve until 6-5.
Purcell and Thompson finally had the first break point of the match – a championship point on Heliovaara’s serve – but Patten came to his rescue at the net with a fine volley.
Patten and Heliovaara saved championship points twice in the tiebreak on some tense rallies before taking the second set and forcing a decider, leaving the Australians confounded during the changeover as the crowd roared its approval.
The final set was more of the same on serve but had more rallies as both pairs refused to be the first ones to blink, before the unheralded pair of Patten and Heliovaara prevailed and sank to their knees.
“I’m devastated. We were so close, we had championship points... This is the way tennis goes,” said Thompson.
Henry Patten and Harri Heliovaara (top) celebrate winning the men’s doubles final against Australia’s Max Purcell and Jordan Thompson.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Purcell, who won the 2022 Wimbledon men’s doubles title, said: “I’m super happy for these boys, they deserve it.”
In the women’s doubles, American Taylor Townsend captured her first Grand Slam title as she and Czech partner Katerina Siniakova beat Canadian Gabriela Dabrowski and New Zealand’s Erin Routliffe 7-6 (7-5), 7-6 (7-1) in what was only their 10th match together. REUTERS
