The duo of Heliövaara and Glasspool took the first doubles ATP500 tournament victory on Sunday in Germany.
Roope Visuri,
Only Paloniemi
Finnish-British couple Harri Heliövaara and Lloyd Glasspool won the doubles final of the Hamburg ATP500 tennis tournament. The duo defeated India, who placed fourth in the tournament, in the final Rohan Bopannan and the Netherlands by Matwe Middelkoop directly in two sets 6–2, 6–4.
Middelkoop was already very familiar to Heliövaara, because last year they won the Moscow ATP250 tournament together. In the quarterfinals of the French Open, Bopanna / Middelkoop beat the Finnish-British duo a month ago.
– We still remember that match, you played so well then. Now the situation is even, you are still playing great tennis. It’s a shame to take this victory from you, thank you for the final, Heliövaara commented after the final.
On the way to winning the tournament, the unseeded Heliövaara and Glasspoolväty also defeated the second and third seeded pairs of the tournament. For Heliövaara, the Hamburg tournament win was the first ATP500 tournament win and the third overall ATP tournament win.
– Oh, the videos, what a feeling, absolutely ridiculous! The first ATP500 tournament victory of his career. I’m right there at the top of the moods that you can feel. After all, this week was an absolutely superb performance from us. We didn’t lose a single set and also in the final our strong mood became concrete. We realized that we were the best pair and we just let the win happen – we didn’t give room for doubts at any point, Heliövaara said in the Tennisliito press release.
With the victory, Heliövaara rises to number 25 in the doubles ranking. It is the best ranking position of his career. Glaspool rise to 34th place.
– I would not have believed this increase at the beginning of the year. Now when you look at the level of players behind me, it’s so hard to put into words, Heliövaara was happy.
The positions of Heliövaara and Glasspool also improved in view of the season-ending final tournament in Turin in November. This year, the eight doubles pairs with the most ranking points can get into it. Now Heliövaara and Glasspool rise to seventh place on this year’s list.
– We have to start thinking about the tournaments at the end of the year and success also in terms of the ATP Finals. There is still a long way to go to the ATP Finals, but that is the goal, Heliövaara stated.
Heliövaara already said after the semi-final that playing on the mass field has gone better with Glasspool this year than before.
– We have a very clear plan, what we will implement in terms of how we are fed and how we are returned. We play very well together with Lloyd, so it’s quite nice then, Heliövaara commented after Saturday’s semi-final victory.