Britain’s Henry Patten, who as student used to input scores for IBM on the outside courts, completed a remarkable Wimbledon story collecting the men’s doubles title alongside Finland’s Harri Heliovaara, winning 6-7, 7-6, 7-6 against Max Purcell and Jordan Thompson, the Australian 15th seeds in an enthralling final on Centre Court.
Unseeded Patten and Heliovaara, who only teamed up this year, saved three match points on the way to winning the second set tie break with the match decided by a 10 point third set tie break. Patten and Heliovaara won on their second match point 11-9.
Patten said: “I cannot put into words how this feels. It couldn’t have been a closer match and I can’t really remember what happened. The most special thing is to do this in front of my family and best friends.”
Both players were in tears after the final point and Heliovaara said: “We got a little lucky today and the tears say it all – it’s very emotional.” The final is no longer over five sets and Purcell said: “I would have been nice to have the extra two sets.”
The three sets they did play went to tie breaks because both teams were so solid on their own serves and as a result, the rallies were much shorter than the crowd wanted. When the players did extend the rallies beyond three shots there was plenty of evidence of the subtle skills they possessed at the net to go with the brutal power of the serves.
Patten,28, was by some way the least experienced player on the court with Thompson a top 40 singles player while Purcell had won the Wimbledon doubles with Matthew Ebden in 2022. His partner Heliovaara,35, had won the US Open mixed doubles title and enjoyed a successful period alongside another British player, Lloyd Glasspool.
This Finnish/British double act was trailing badly in both tie breaks but somehow dragged themselves back into contention despite falling 1-6 down in the first before losing it 9-7. In the second set a Patten volley saved a match point in the 12th game and it appeared their luck had run out as the fell 2-5 behind in the tie break. However, the pair refused to buckle an saved two more match points before taking it 10-8 to the delight of the centre court crowd who had witnessed two outstanding tie breaks.
Heliovaara then saved two break points in the seventh game of the decider to frustrate the Australians and set up a final tie break.