Harri Heliövaaran tennis career is on the rise. The doubles specialist, who is playing his “second career”, is already ranked 17th in the world. Among other things, he has won the ATP500 tournament in Hamburg and two quarterfinals of the Grand Slam tournament, the French Open and the US Open.
Heliövaara and his British partner Lloyd Glasspool are tied for a place in the season-ending ATP finals tournament, where the eight best couples of the season can enter.
Especially late spring and summer were a really strong time for the couple. In a few months, they have beaten almost all the top couples in the world, some more than once. For example, top names in the world rankings and recent US Open champions Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury have lost twice to the Finnish-British pair.
The strong phase started in May with the Rome Masters tournament, which became a legendary story. Heliövaara and Glasspool were originally only in sixth place. On the night between Tuesday and Wednesday of the tournament week, they learned that a spot on the chart could come off. Early on Wednesday morning, both left their home countries for Rome. In the afternoon Ram and Salisbury went down.
– In the spring, we did a two-week session in London at the British national tennis academy, where we got help from the world’s top coaches. It was somehow a turning point, we got even clearer on our routine on and off the field. We always know what we are doing. It’s not so much necessary to play according to the opponent, but we can play that famous own game, Heliövaara said in Espoo Areena, when the preparation for the weekend’s Davis Cup was underway.
Heliövaara has often spoken about the support of the English Tennis Association before. The duo has received a lot of data and a doubles coaching guru from there, among other things of Louis Cayer counselor.
From student back to tennis player
Heliövaara was a promising junior who won the Australian open boys’ doubles championship in 2007. He built a professional career through singles and had quite a good career in Finnish terms. The singles ranking was at its best 194. However, in 2013, before his 24th birthday, he announced that he would end his professional career.
Heliövaara moved from the tennis courts to become a student.
– I was a student for four years. I studied for a master’s degree in engineering and did a few internships at top companies. Then I realized that the blood still draws me back to the tennis courts and I wondered, Did some stone remain unturned, Heliövaara said in an interview about a year ago.
In 2017, Heliövaara returned to the professional fields. He decided to invest in doubles and his big goal was to get to the Olympics. The career took off well and there was good success in the challenger competitions.
It really started to happen in 2021. Right at the beginning of the year, Heliövaara won his first match at the ATP level. From there, the pace accelerated so wildly that already in March, the first ATP tournament victory came in Marseille. Then the couple was Glasspool and the success story had begun.
The couple’s chemistry works well. Glasspool is a top-class passer and Heliövaara is a strong pass returner and a skilled net player. Glasspool has also developed as a returner and the pair has no major weaknesses. Heliövaara has also taken on the role of a rowdy fan after the victories, while Glasspool takes it more calmly.
– We have a very clear division of roles. The playing styles support each other. I’m the one keeping my breath, Lloyd makes more tactical decisions.
Heliövaara’s ranking at the turn of last year was 64. Although 2021 was good, the rise this season has been really hard. This is what Heliövaara thought about his goals last December:
– If you could get into the 30-40 group, you could be incredibly satisfied. That would mean that we would play Masters and ATP500 tournaments. Going far in the Grand Slams would be pretty special.
Now the ranking is 17. There have been two quarter-finals in the Grand Slam, as well as a tournament victory in the Masters and the ATP500.
Conjunctivitis plagued the North American tour
Even on the just ended North American tour, the results were good, even though Heliövaara had an annoying problem.
– I had iritis, i.e. conjunctivitis, as a problem for almost the entire five-week trip. The vision is still quite blurry. The brain has to compensate for which direction and at what speed the ball is coming. I thought it was quite a miracle that I could play at that level as a nearsighted person. Now I can wear contact lenses, it makes it a little easier.
In the midst of all the success, some questions have been raised by the fact that Heliövaara and Glasspool have lost a clear lead several times. An extreme example was seen in the final of the ATP250 tournament in Umag, when the duo led the Italians 6-0 in the tie-break of the second set after winning the opening set Fabio Fognini and Simone Bolelli against. The Italians cleared all six match points – and two already before tiebreak – and eventually won the match.
Heliövaara turns this into a positive as well.
– I wouldn’t consider it worrying. On the contrary, it creates faith. Even the matches we have lost have been close to winning.
The big goal for the rest of the season is to get to the ATP final tournament in Turin. Heliövaara reminds us that the conditions in the hall suited them well. The goals have also increased with success.
– Now we are among the twenty, so I guess the next goal is to be among the ten. It doesn’t seem insurmountable. And in big races, I want to go all the way.
Financial success is also beginning to show, although the prize money in doubles is much smaller than in singles. This year, Heliövaara has earned more than 300,000 dollars.
– When you play as a profession, the goal is to support yourself. Hopefully there will be some savings. It’s nice to see that the income stream is in the right direction. I can bring good conditions to the family, even though I myself am away a lot, said Heliövaara, the father of a one-year-old daughter.
A few years ago, the choice of a new company on the tennis courts instead of the work of a master’s degree in engineering feels right.
– It doesn’t hurt at all to have a tennis racket in your hand almost every day. I really enjoyed it and you get to live the dream.
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