Harri Heliövaara’s and Ulrikke Eiker’s career in mixed doubles ended with a loss in the opening round, but getting the duo into the chart at all required hard tactics.
Harri Heliövaara won the US Open mixed doubles match against Kazakhstan last fall Anna Danilina with. Then Heliövaara and Danilina met each other only when registering for the tournament in the early days of the competition, so the championship was a real Cinderella story.
Now at the Australian Open, Heliövaara’s and Danilina’s rankings were not enough for them to have played together.
You can enter the mixed doubles chart by adding up the male player’s ranking from the men’s doubles and the female player’s ranking from the women’s doubles.
There is no separate ranking in mixed doubles, so winning the US Open is of no use to Heliövaara and Danilina.
So Heliövaara applied for a place in the mixed doubles chart for a Norwegian Ulrikke Eikerin with. Their joint ranking was 66. Registration for the mixed doubles game is done in the traditional way with pen and paper.
Heliövaara and Eikeri were the last couple to join, but joining became a real thrill show. Heliövaara tells about it on his blog:
“Our joint ranking with Ulrike was 66, but there were several teams behind us, including two teams with a joint ranking of 67, who would have gone ahead of us if they had switched pairs. Therefore, our tactic was to keep our own cooperative intentions hidden.
A few minutes before the registration deadline, among other things Joe Salisbury signed up by Heather Watson with thinking they were the last team to join, but finally 15 seconds before the finish line, I put our name on the list.
I didn’t let go of the pen until the referee took the paper for himself, and there was no way for Joe or anyone else to switch pairs like this with another that they would have gotten ahead of us with. It was a tough game, but it was worth it.”
However, Heliövaara and Eiker’s tournament was short. They played their opening round match on Saturday. The result was a loss after a thriller when the eighth-placed pair Ellen Perez / Jean-Julien Rojer was better in chapters 6–7, 7–6, 12–10.
Anna Danilina’s career in mixed doubles also ended with a loss in the opening round, so the US Open champions did not individually have the same golden touch as they did together.
The Finns’ matches at the Australian Open are over. Heliövaara lost in doubles of John Peers with in the second round and Emil Ruusuvuori had to bow out in the second round in five sets to Daniil Medvedev.
Swiatek dropped unexpectedly
Saturday saw the biggest surprise of the tournament so far, when the women’s first place Iga Swiatek fell. 19 year old Czech Linda Noskova defeated Swiatek 3–6, 6–3, 6–4.
On the men’s side, Portugal Nuno Borges sends warning signs to Finland before the Davis Cup match to be played at the beginning of February. Borges already advanced to the fourth round by beating the one who was in a strong mood Grigor Dimitrov.
Next, Borges will face Medvedev. Medvedev, who defeated Emil Ruusuvuuori after a hard fight, made it to the third round much easier Felix Auger-Aliassimea against. Medvedev won 6–3, 6–4, 6–3.