In the doubles discipline, Great Britain is more than well represented in the Nitto ATP Finals, with three of the four finalists at this year’s event in Turin coming from these shores.
I think we really enjoyed being on the track. We had more experience and we executed exactly what we wanted to do today Harri Heliovaara
Finland’s Harri Heliovaara teams up with Henry Patten and the pair ousted top seeds and home favorites Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori in the opening semi-final on Saturday.
Last year the pair were defeated at this stage, but this time they had no hesitation in going through 6-4 6-3 against the Italians after a stunning display of doubles tennis that stifled the raucous home support at the Inalpi Arena.
“We had to dig deep yesterday, but we were ready for this semi-final,” said Heliovaara, looking back on the close group match they had to endure to reach the last four. “I think we really enjoyed being on the field. We had more experience and we executed exactly what we wanted to do today.”
Heliovaara and Patten converted the only break point of the opening set at 1-1, 30-40 to advance, while also decisively breaking serve in the third game of the second. He almost conceded on the break but held firm in what proved to be their final threatening moment of the match as they wrapped up the game after 76 minutes.
“A lot of practice. There’s really no secret,” Patten said, when asked about he and Heliovaara’s performance. “They are two very good servers. We have had trouble coming back against them in the past. Sometimes you also have a bit of luck. No secret, just a lot of hard work and a lot of repetitions, actually.”
The 36-year-old Heliovaara and the 29-year-old Patten will play for their eighth tour-level title as a team on Sunday, and their second indoor title of the year after capturing the Paris Masters title earlier this month.
. (Photo by Valerio Pennicino/Getty Images)
Later in the evening, Joe Salisbury and Neal Skupski joined them in the final after beating fellow Brits and year-end No. 1 team Julian Cash and Lloyd Glasspool 6-7(3) 6-3 10-8.
In what – not unexpectedly – turned out to be a close match in which there was little separation between them, especially in the first set in which only one break point was raised, forcing a tiebreak to decide in which the defending champions gained the advantage with an excellent return.
However, Salisbury and Skupski responded well by grabbing an early break in the second to turn the match around with some powerful serves to level the match and then beat their opponents in the Match Tiebreak after one hour and 31 minutes.
Salisbury and Skupski have a 46-21 record for the season and will look together for their first title of 2025 this week after falling short in the French and US Open finals.
For Skupski, the overall success would earn him his third ATP Finals trophy, having previously won the event back-to-back, partnering American Rajeev Ram (2022-2023).
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