The tournament win puts the 33-year-old Heliövaara in the top ten in the world doubles rankings.
8.1. 7:13•Updated 8.1. 12:28 p.m
Harri Heliövaara and British Lloyd Glasspool have won the doubles final of the ATP250 tournament in Adelaide, Australia. The tournament victory is Heliövaara’s fourth in his career and the third together for the doubles team.
In the final match, the duo knocked down the British by Jamie Murray and a New Zealander by Michael Venus in chapters 6–3, 7–6(7–3). The final lasted one hour and 19 minutes.
– I have to be satisfied, I couldn’t have had a better start to the year. This week was really successful, we were really good on the pitch. It was a really confident feeling, Heliövaara told Urheilu.
The tournament win raises the 33-year-old Heliövaara to ninth in the world doubles rankings.
– Getting into the top ten is such a great thing. You can be proud of this. This is really great, because a lot has happened in the last couple of years. This means that I am at the top of the world, said Heliövaara, who has already finished his career once.
The Finnish-British duo played in the finals seven times last season. According to Heliövaara, the pair is now mentally more ready to play in the finals.
– This is the third year together with Lloyd and the development is still coming. Now it can be seen that we did the right things in training before the start of the season. We no longer feel mentally empty when we have reached the final. Now that empty feeling only comes when we’ve won the final.
– We have a big goal to win titles this year. This is a realistic goal that we believe in and focus on.
Heliövaara and Glasspool’s work will continue next week, when the duo will play another tournament in Adelaide before the Australian Open, which starts in a week.
– We like to play a lot of matches. I hope there will be a lot of games next week as well. You have to take care not to pull yourself into the pipe, because the conditions are hot here.