Harri Heliövaara and Lloyd Glasspool entered the fight with wins in the third and fourth set, but lost the last set when Heliövaara lost his serve twice.
Mika Halonen,
Anu Karttunen
Harri Heliövaara and Lloyd Glasspool suffered a tight defeat in the third round of the Wimbledon tennis tournament.
The Croatian couple who won the Wimbledon doubles championship last year Nikola Mektic and Mate Pavic was better in a match that went to a fifth set. The set scores were recorded for the winners 6–4, 7–6(8–6), 4–6, 2–6, 6–3.
The match lasted three hours and 13 minutes.
This year’s Wimbledon Grand Slam tournament runner-up, the Croatian pair defeated Heliövaara and Glasspool in the final match of the Queen’s Club tournament in June. Mektic and Pavic have not lost a match on grass courts this year.
The Croats won the first set 6–4 and the second only after a tight tie-break. In the third and fourth sets, Heliövaara and Glasspool got into the match brilliantly.
– It was a really great match. The opponents are at the very top of the world, especially on the grass court in a hard winning streak and they played the first two sets so well that they didn’t get into those places, Heliövaara told Urheilu.
– The next two sets were even controlled by us. We played wonderful tennis and even got to pressurize in the return game.
In the fifth set, Heliövaara had problems with his serve. The Croatians broke Heliövaara’s pass twice in a row in the deciding set, to 3–1 and 5–3. In between, Heliövaara and Glasspool also succeeded in breaking the pass. The set ended 6–3.
– The fifth set does take a toll. There were a few second serves too many and the opponent had a few top performances too many.
Things are not bad
According to Heliövaara, they were in good spirits with Glasspool and they believed they would win the match. However, the opposition showed why they are on top of the world. In Heliövaara’s opinion, the two can learn a lot from this match for the future.
– This was now the third time we played against them and unfortunately the third very tight loss as well. Each time we learn more and each time we get closer. Today we were able to dominate two sets, and that’s great. If they are the best in the world and we are this close to them, then things are not bad for us, Heliövaara thought.
– At the moment, the main feeling is that we did our best. After that, you can’t be that disappointed. Probably in the evening and tomorrow it will hit me that I could have done something differently. Feeling a bit empty at the moment. The competition was over.
Heliövaara, 33, and Glasspool, 28, also reached the third round at Wimbledon a year ago, but then they had to give up because of Glasspool’s injury. Their best Grand Slam performance is this year’s French Open, where the duo reached the quarterfinals.
Heliövaara is ranked 32nd in the doubles world ranking and Glasspool is ranked 43rd.
Next, Heliövaara plans to take some oxygen, because he has been playing with Glasspool in England and on grass for over a month already. The duo plans to play a couple of mass field events in July before heading to the North American tournaments.
Update at 19:05: Harri Heliövaara’s comments have been added.