Harri Heliövaara and Lloyd Glasspool won Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury at the Rome Masters.
11.5. 18:40 • Updated May 11 20:16
Harri Heliövaara and his British couple Lloyd Glasspool took a spectacular win in the opening round of the doubles in the Rome Masters 1000. Heliövaara and Glasspool won the world’s number one pair Rajeev Ram/Joe Salisbury 7–6, 6–3.
Salisbury is number one on the world list and Ram number two. Heliövaara is in 52nd place and Glasspool is 71st.
This is Heliövaara’s first Masters level tournament.
Heliövaara’s preparation for the tournament was not quite normal, but it tells about the everyday life of a tennis professional. Heliövaara talks about it on their blog (go to another service).
Heliövaara and Glasspool were originally only in sixth place in the Rome tournament. One pair dropped out of the race right on Monday. Some of those in reserve moved to Bordeaux’s challenger tournament and not everyone wanted to take their place, so the Finnish-British couple’s positions improved.
However, on Tuesday evening, Heliövaara and Glasspool were still in their home countries.
– Last night, however, it turned out that Rublev withdrew from the doubles match on Wednesday’s match. This wasn’t clear yet when I went to bed, but for safety’s sake, I put an alarm to ring at 5 a.m. that I would have time for a morning flight if something happened at night. However, I woke up at 2.30 baby crying, glanced at my phone and noticed seven missed calls from Lloyd, who had also tried to communicate with my wife and brother, Heliövaara wrote in his blog.
The duo took morning flights to Rome, although the place on the chart was still uncertain. However, after the plane landed, it became clear that the venue was clear. In the afternoon, the number one in the world collapsed.
Heliövaara and Glasspool won the opening round after the playoffs. In the second round, they broke the opponents’ feed right at the beginning of the round and took another break at the end.
“Lloyd was late for the flight”
Onnellinen Heliövaara repeated the steps of the previous day by phone to Urheil. The duo had already practically forgotten about the tournament in Rome and were supposed to hold a week off from the race.
– I told Lloyd that if I played against the number one in the world again, I would hardly have four days off during which there was one bachelor party. Yesterday was one workout in the cold Finnish open air.
Last night, however, the situation changed. Heliövaara specified that the daughter who woke her up at night will be one year old today.
– We were on the pitch three hours before the start of the match. We took a little mouthful and we went beating for half an hour. Then a little lunch, a little rest and towards the field. Quite absurd situation.
– We were both pretty tired. After all, Lloyd slept in the bomb when he finally fell asleep and was late for the flight. He miraculously got on a flight and traveled with hand luggage alone.
The match against the world’s first pair itself went great.
– This was the kind of performance we can do at best. We didn’t lose any of our passes, we played an excellent tiebreak and in the second set we broke twice. The opponents were number one in the world and number two, but we played a positive, tactical game, Heliövaara said.
– This is my first time at Masters level. I enjoyed, smiled and sucked in the atmosphere.
Next, Heliövaara and Glasspool meet Thanasi Kokkinakis and Frances Tiafoen.
– Next up will be a duel with special men, but pretty dangerous. Kokkinakis won the Australian Open in January (Nick Kyrgiosin with). There will be a very different type of match. They stay a lot behind and try to hit really hard from there.