In the doubles discipline, 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 out on court. We had more experience, and we just executed exactly what we wanted to do today Harri Heliovaara
Finland’s Harri Heliovaara is in partnership with Henry Patten and the pair have ousted the top seeds and home favourites, Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori in the opening semi-final on Saturday.
Last year the pair had been defeated at this stage but this time they didn’t falter going through 6-4 6-3 against the Italians following a stunning display of doubles tennis which stifled the raucous home support within the Inalpi Arena.
“We had to dig deep yesterday, but we were ready for this semi-final,” said Heliovaara recollecting the tight group match they endured to get through to the last four. “I think we really enjoyed being out on court. We had more experience, and we just 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 move ahead, while they also decisively broke serve in the third game of the second. He nearly conceded the break back but held on in what proved the last threatening moment of the match as far as they were concerned as they went on to close out the match after 76-minutes.
“Lots of practice. There’s no secret really,” said Patten, when asked about he and Heliovaara’s performance. “They are two very good servers. We’ve struggled returning against them in the past. Sometimes you get a bit lucky as well. No secret, just lots of hard work and lots of repetitions, really.”
The 36-year-old Heliovaara and 29-year-old Patten will on Sunday play for their eighth tour-level title as a team, and their second indoor title of the year after they lifted the Paris Masters title earlier this month.
Neal Skupski and Joe Salisbury get ready to face their contrymen Julian Cash and Lloyd Glasspool
. (Photo by Valerio Pennicino/Getty Images)
Later in the evening, Joe Salisbury and Neal Skupski joined them in the final after overcoming fellow Brits and end-of-year No.1 team, Julian Cash and Lloyd Glasspool 6-7(3) 6-3 10-8.
In what proved – not unexpectedly – a tight match in which little separated them, especially in the first set where just one break point was raised leaving a tiebreak to decide in which the defending champions gained the advantage with some excellent returning.
However, Salisbury and Skupski responded well to gain an early break in the second to turn the match around with some powerful serving to level the match and then edge out their opponents in the Match Tiebreak after one-hour, 31-minutes,
Salisbury and Skupski hold a 46-21 record for the season and are searching for their first title of 2025 together this week after falling short in the French and US Open finals.
For Skupski, overall success would provide him with his third ATP Finals trophy having previously won the event back-to-back, in partnership with the American Rajeev Ram (2022-23).
