The tennis season is already in full swing and the first Grand Slam tournament of the season, the Australian Open, starts on Monday. The top names in Finnish tennis Emil Ruusuvuori and Harri Heliövaara started the new season with good positions. Both are having the best year of their career so far.
Ruusuvuori’s ranking was 40 at the end of the season, the best of his career. The ATP season ended for him at the end of October.
– For once, I managed to take a little longer break. I went on vacation and was without a racket for a good couple of weeks, that hasn’t happened in many years. Then I started training here in Helsinki with more emphasis on physics and in December in Alicante with more emphasis on tennis, Ruusuvuori said on the eve of Christmas at the Tali tennis center.
In addition to the holiday and training in the Seychelles, Ruusuvuori also played a couple of matches in the Polish league.
– Now there is also the championship of the Polish league. It was good to play a couple of matches, otherwise it would have been quite a long break from matches, Ruusuvuori laughed.
Ruusuvuori’s season included, among other things, the first ATP finals of his career in February in India, a semi-final in Stockholm and a quarter-final on the Queen’s Club grass courts in London.
– It was a really good season as a whole. There were a lot of matches and experience. At the end of the season, the ranking was the highest it has been. It was nice to end it and it’s nice to start the new season, you can participate in all the competitions.
Ruusuvuori, known for his strong basic strokes, believes that he developed and diversified as a player during the last season.
– The game progressed a lot. Halfway through the season, I started to find things with the team, how to mix up the game. It’s quite difficult to beat the top players with one tactic.
Ruusuvuori still knows that all areas must be developed and the overall package must be made even better.
On December 28, Ruusuvuori traveled to Pune, India, where the season started right after the turn of the year. The tournament was the same one where he played in the only ATP final of his career so far last season. Then it was played in February, now right at the beginning of the year.
This time, the success was not the same, but Ruusuvuori, who directly reached the second round, immediately lost his first match to the French To Benjamin Bonz. Also in the next tournament in Adelaide, Sweden immediately lost to Mikael Ymer. Ruusuvuori will therefore have to go to Australia for the open without a single match win this year.
However, it’s not worth drawing big conclusions from the two tournaments. Bonzi went all the way to the final in India and Ymer is a difficult opponent for Ruusuvuori in terms of playing style.
Under Christmas, Ruusuvuori told clear goals for the new season.
– The first title and in the Grand Slams we should go further. If the ranking allows, maybe I’ll play a few races less and invest more in big races.
In Grand Slam tournaments, the Helsinki native’s path has so far been limited to the second round at the latest.
Right after the Australian Open at the beginning of February, it’s time for the Davis Cup match against Argentina in Espoo. Finland has another chance to advance to the final tournament of the best countries. Although Argentina is a tough tennis country, even if they don’t get all their best players to Espoo.
– It’s quite nice to have a home match again. It would have been quite a different starting point if Australia had to go directly to Argentina, probably for the masses. Now let’s put a fast ship in Espoo. We’re going to show what we can do again.
The progress of Ruusuvuori’s career is also indicated by the fact that he has faced all the top players in the world Novak Djokovic except for. Who among them has been the toughest opponent?
– (Daniil) Medvedev was surprisingly difficult. I had trained with him before, but it was difficult in the match.
A fairytale season at Heliövaara
Ace of four Harri Heliövaaran and his British counterpart by Lloyd Glasspool last season was absolutely incredible.
At the start of the season, Heliövaara was ranked 64th in the world. The duo did not even qualify for the early season Masters tournaments. During the year, they advanced to seven ATP finals and otherwise played at a consistently hard level. The season culminated in a semifinal spot in the world’s top eight pairs in the ATP final tournament, and Heliövaara ended the season in 11th place. How was all that possible?
– If I could say that, so many of my own goals and expectations were clearly exceeded. I still feel in disbelief. It’s a rare situation, you have to enjoy it. When we got into a certain kind of flow state, we let things roll, Heliövaara thought in December.
– As a team, we are strong, we know each other and what we do on the field. We had a few really good training camps in London in the spring, where teamwork was made even more specific. We have received great coaching advice from England, Heliövaara explained the things behind the success.
The duo started the new season from a new situation.
– Last season was a pressure-free situation, but now everyone wants to beat us. We should succeed and we are placed in all the competitions, Heliövaara stated.
– We have a clear goal to win the Grand Slam and the Masters and thereby reach the number one spot in the world. It shouldn’t be kept under wraps. We’re at the top, so why not go all the way.
At least the season started in the best possible way. Heliövaara and Glasspool won the ATP tournament in Adelaide and Heliövaara already rose to ninth in the world rankings.