#heliopatten

Sources:

I was initially planning on making proper citations for every source, but I've been writing this for almost 2 hours now, which is way too long for a goddamn Tumblr post about random doubles players 😭 I've added hyperlinks for one-off sources and I've numbered and cited the main sources I reference so they can be referred while reading :)

Harri's blog

Henry's guest post on the blog

Why the Heliovaara Renaissance is one of the most interesting stories in tennis

Doubles 'dating' & reindeer stew fuel Patten success

Harri Heliövaara:

Born 4 June 1989 in Helsinki, Finland (1)

Won the 2007 Australian Open boys' doubles title (1)

Played mostly singles after turning pro and achieved a career high of 194th in the world (source: Wikipedia)

Retired from tennis in 2013 due to health struggles, was later diagnosed with Ankylosing spondylitis, an autoimmune disorder that causes arthritis and long-term inflammation of the joints of the spine, especially where the spine and pelvis meet. He now takes monthly injections to manage his chronic illness (3)

After retiring, went to Aalto University to study Industrial Engineering and Management and earned a Bachelor's and Master's in Science (source: LinkedIn)

Worked and interned at many places while at university, including: as a customer service provider at Helsinki Airport, part-time office worker at the Finnish Tennis Association, as a tennis coach, and an internship at McKinsey (which is insane??? I know students who would KILL for an internship at McKinsey). I did stalk his LinkedIn for this information and I am mildly embarrassed about it 💀

He met his wife Sini while working at the airport! They have a daughter, son, and dog together (1, 3). He actually took paternity leave and missed playing Wimbledon in 2023 so he would be present in Helsinki for the birth of his son 🥹 (source: ATP tour)

Returned to tennis in 2017 after being asked by the Finnish Tennis Association to play at the Davis Cup. He got to play doubles with Henri Kontinen, which is pretty cool considering Kontinen was world no. 1 in doubles at the time! (3)

After returning to the tour full-time, he started partnering Lloyd Glasspool in 2020. They started having success as a pair in 2021 and 2022, winning three ATP tour titles and reaching 7 finals. They split in late 2023 (sources: 3, Wikipedia)

Fun fact: the only reason Harri and Lloyd played Rome in 2022 was because Harri's daughter woke him up with her crying! They got a last minute entry and Lloyd called Harri around 20 times before Harri finally woke up. Thankfully he did, because they reached the quarterfinals! (source: ATP tour)

Won the 2023 US Open mixed doubles with Anna Danilina. What's crazy about this is that they didn't even know each other before that tournament! They both went to the mixed dubs sign-ups but neither had a partner. They just asked each if they had partners, neither person didn't, and then BOOM, new partners. And then two weeks later, they won the whole thing! Insane stuff lmao (sources: US Open, ESPN)

Runs a blog! It's in Finnish so trying to google translate all the stuff has been...interesting! But it's super cool to get an such an in-depth insight into life on tour

Is really into golf and aviation. Like really really. So much so that he applied to be a pilot after graduating university (he didn't pass the medical. That pesky Ankylosing spondylitis!) (3) and lists his golf handicap and the number of airports he's visited on his blog 💀 (1)

Henry Patten:

Born 5 May 1996 in Manningtree, Essex, England (source: Wikipedia)

Played many sports as a child and didn't start taking tennis seriously until around age 16, when he won a scholarship to train and study at Culford School (private boarding school, fancy!) (2)

Double majored in Economics and Management at the University of North Carolina at Asheville, where he also played Division 1 NCAA tennis (oops, stalked LinkedIn again!). He reached no. 1 in the Division 1 NCAA doubles rankings! (source: LinkedIn)

Interned as an IBM court-side statistician at Wimbledon in 2016 and 2017 (source: LinkedIn)

Then went to Durham University to get his Master's degree, where he also played tennis. His team played some ITF tournaments which he tagged along to. This is where he started seriously considering a career as a professional tennis player (2)

Had his break-out year in 2022, partnering Julian Cash. They won 10 Challengers in the span of 6 months, breaking the record for most Challengers titles won in a single season (sources: 2, ATP tour)! They reached one ATP final in 2023, where they lost to Thompson and Purcell (I know Silas will find that amusing lol) (source: ATP Tour). I believe they also split in late 2023.

Lives with his girlfriend Ellie in North Carolina, where she works as a doctor in a hospital there. They met while he was at UNC Asheville . They also have a cat named Baloo (2)

Plays chess in his free time, also enjoys golf and padel (2)

His favourite band is Arctic Monkeys (2)! Decent choice imo

Says he regularly reads Harri's blog and has had to ask Harri for clarification on weird automatic translations before (2)

As a doubles team:

This is where the fun stuff begins!

Both Harri and Henry were playing with different partners in the beginning 2024, with not so great levels of success. Before this, they had trained a lot together (courtesy of Glasspool also being British) and played one match against each other in Adelaide at the beginning of the year, which Harri won (2)

Around the end of March (Acapulco), they started discussing a doubles partnership. Harri actually said no initially, but in Henry's words: "I think he had one bad result too many and said 'screw it, let's just do it'." (4)

Their first tournament as a pair was the Marrakech ATP 250 in early April and they...won it? I'm dead serious they won the very first tournament they ever played together. I'm sensing a trend here... (4)

They then had a kind of insane clay season, winning several 250s and Challengers. Unfortunately they had to withdraw from Roland Garros in before third round after Harri got injured :(

They entered Wimbledon unseeded (although I think they were quite close to being seeded) and won the whole thing! Their final match against Thompson and Purcell was genuinely insane: all 3 sets ended in tiebreaks and they save 3 match points to win it. I actually think Max and Jordan won more points in total than they did, which is...rough 💀 (sources: ATP Tour, BBC)

That match is what got them onto most people's radars I think, especially because of Harri's post match celebrations. Man really just started sobbing, it was really sweet to see 😭 Their win went kind of viral on Instagram!

They had a decent rest of 2024 too, winning the Stockholm Open and qualifying for and reaching the semifinals of the Nitto ATP finals (sources: ATP Tour, LTA)

And then in 2025 they won the Australian Open! Sorry to my Italian moots, I'm sure Bolelli and Vavassori will win a slam at some point 😭

Henry has guest posted on Harri's blog (the only post in English lmao) where he talked about what he thinks makes them a successful doubles team, which is mainly his power from the baseline and his lefty forehand making him great on deuce side. He says that Harri's strengths lie in his skills at the net and great returning. (2)

He also talks about the British system of doubles they teach at the National Tennis Centre, which has produced many successful British doubles pairings. Harri also played in this system with Glasspool, which probably made their own transition into a team a lot easier (2)

I think the differences in their personalities also contrast each other very well. Harri is super passionate whereas Henry is a lot chiller, which they agree on too (source: Eurosport)

Fun facts about them as a doubles pairing:

They haven't even been partners for a year, but both of them have talked about how close they are on and off the court, and how they feel like they've been friends for much longer 🥹 (2, 4)

They've met each other's families too! I'm pretty sure Ellie was in their box when they won Wimbledon, and Henry stayed with Harri's family in Helsinki for a week in October to train. They did all the touristy stuff and Harri cooked Henry reindeer stew! Apparently it was very good 👀 (4)

Both of them have described doubles as similar to dating 😭 (sources: 4, Tennis Channel YouTube)

They've played golf together, and apparently Henry beat Harri even though Harri is supposed to be better and takes it a lot more seriously 💀 (source: Tennis Channel YouTube)

Not exactly related to them, but Cash and Glasspool are now doubles partners!