Finland’s most successful tennis player of all time, Jarkko Nieminen, describes the game chemistry between Harri Heliövaara and Henry Patten, who played together for four months, as exceptional.
12:05•Updated 13:52
Harri Heliövaara achieved something in tennis that no Finn has achieved before when he won the Wimbledon adult doubles together with his British partner of Henry Patten with late Saturday night.
Heliövaara, 35, and Patten, 28, played their first tournament in April. Since then, the duo has played in ten tournaments, five of which they have emerged as winners. The recent victory took the pair straight to the top.
– This has been quite a cinderella story so far. You can’t expect anything better, the head coach of the Finnish national tennis team Jarkko Nieminen described as emotional.
The two have won 29 of the 33 matches they have played. The duo’s journey together started successfully when they immediately won their opening tournament at the Moroccan ATP 250 tournament at the beginning of April.
– Now then the biggest, most prestigious and perhaps the most sacred Wimbledon. It is extraordinary to be able to beat the best couples in the world so quickly.
At the same time, Nieminen praises the Finnish player more broadly.
– Sports and tennis achievements are one thing, but there is a great person and personality in that. It’s hard to put into words how happy I am for him. I have had time to feel a long way and he is a very nice guy.
The pair complement each other
In addition to two good four players, success requires that the game chemistry works both on and off the field. This is the case with Heliövaara and Patten, and according to Nieminen, they complement each other. In addition, a grand slam win requires all the stars to be aligned.
In the more than 100-year history of the traditional Wimbledon tennis tournament, only three British players have won the doubles. Now in 2012, having won the championship of Jonathan Mary and a year ago to victory Neal Skupski Patten is also recorded alongside.
Heliövaara Nieminen describes as a comprehensive player. However, Patten, a 198-centimeter left-handed British player with a strong pass, has surprised with his versatility.
– Harri’s weaknesses don’t really show up in the doubles game. I was surprised how Patten also has versatility both in net returns and in backcourt shots. An incredibly cool-headed guy and throughout the tournament managed his best shots, especially in tight spots.
Nieminen’s career-high was ranked 13th in the singles world rankings. In the doubles world rankings published on Monday, Heliövaara rises to 12th, while before Wimbledon he was ranked 37th.
An achievement for the history books
Nieminen, who reached the semifinals of the grand slam tournament once in his career in doubles, followed the final match from the commentary booth. In the final match, the Australians Max Purcell and Jordan Thompson got no less than three match balls.
In light of the points, the Australian duo won the match 126–116, which means that Heliövaara and Patten won the most important balls for themselves in tight spots.
– They played as convincing and wonderful a tournament as you can play. From the very beginning, there was a determined mood and they played at a really high level throughout the tournament. In a game of small margins, the place in the final is anything but a given.
In London, we saw a really dramatic and high-quality final match, which Nieminen still describes as speechless.
– I was strongly involved and when the match was so tight. There’s no saving time in tennis anyway, but it was an incredible moment when the result and the championship became concrete and the emotions were on the surface.
According to Nieminen, it is challenging to put the championship on a larger scale, because tennis has changed a lot in history. Something extraordinary really happened in London and the victory is recorded among the great Finnish achievements.
Correction at 1:52 p.m.: It has been corrected that Heliövaara and Patten have played ten tournaments so far, not eight.