Latest news with #Heliovaara
Hans India
3 days ago
- Sport
- Hans India
French Open: Bopanna-Pavlasek bow out after pre-quarterfinal loss
India's Rohan Bopanna and his Czech partner Adam Pavlasek put up a spirited fight but were knocked out of the French Open on Sunday by second seeds Harri Heliovaara and Henry Patten. The unseeded Indo-Czech duo fell 2-6, 6-7(5) in the pre-quarterfinals to Finland's Heliovaara and Britain's Patten, who are ranked third and fourth in the world, respectively. The second seeds raced to a 5-1 lead in the first set with two breaks of serve. Heliovaara then closed out the set with a dominant service game, finishing with a powerful overhead smash. Bopanna started strong in the second set, holding serve to love. Patten responded equally well, firing in a series of sharp, angled serves. Bopanna and Pavlasek had a chance to break at 2-3 when Patten opened game six with a double fault and quickly went down 0-30. However, the Briton responded under pressure, winning four consecutive points to escape unscathed. With no breaks of serve in the second set, it went to a tiebreak, where Heliovaara sealed the match with a stunning return winner on the first match point. Meanwhile, Yuki Bhambri is set to play his third-round match alongside American partner Robert Galloway. They face the ninth-seeded American pair Christian Harrison and Evan King. In the Junior Championship, India's promising young player Manas Dhamne exited the tournament after a 5-7, 3-6 defeat to fellow qualifier Ronit Karki of the United States. The 17-year-old Dhamne, who had made it into the main draw through qualifying, struggled to find his rhythm on Sunday. Earlier in the day, the three-time Roland-Garros champion Novak Djokovic scored the 99th win of his career on the Paris clay after beating Austrian qualifier Filip Misolic 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 to enter the fourth round of the tournament.
Hindustan Times
3 days ago
- Sport
- Hindustan Times
Rohan Bopanna-Adam Pavlasek pair knocked out of French Open 2025
India's Rohan Bopanna and his partner Adam Pavlasek fought tooth and nail before being knocked out from the French Open by second seeds Harri Heliovaara and Henry Patten, in Paris on Sunday. The unseeded Indo-Czech pair lost 2-6 6-7(5) to Heliovaara from Finland and British player Patten, ranked three and four in the world respectively, in the pre-quarterfinals. The second seeds zoomed to a 5-1 lead in the opening set with a double break. The Finn served out the set at love, finishing the game with an overhead smash on a return. Bopanna made a solid start to the second set, holding without losing a point on his serve. Left-handed Patten too came out all guns blazing, sending down some measured and powerful angled serves. Bopanna and Pavlasek got an opening when at 2-3, Patten began game six with a double fault and lost another point to be down 0-30 but the Briton reeled off four straight points to avert the danger. There was no break of serve and eventually the second set was stretched to a tie-breaker in which the second seeds prevailed when Heliovaara found a stunning service return winner on first match point. Yuki Bhambri is also slated to play his third round with American partner Robert Galloway. They take on ninth seeds Christian Harrison and Evan King from the United States. In the Junior Championship, India's exciting prospect for future Manas Dhamne bowed out after losing 5-7 3-6 to fellow American qualifier Ronit Karki. The 17-year-old Dhamne had entered the main draw as a qualifier. He could not play to his potential on Sunday.
BBC News
28-01-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
Britain's Patten targets number one doubles ranking
Britain's Henry Patten has set his sights on becoming the top-ranked doubles player in the world after winning his second Grand Slam and Finnish partner Harri Heliovaara are now ranked three and four by the ATP following their epic men's doubles win over Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori in a late-night final at the Australian Open last Salvador's Marcelo Arevalo and Mate Pavic of Croatia are currently joint number one, with 7,530 ranking points, compared with Patten's 7,075."The prize money in doubles is a lot less than the singles and sponsorship deals are a little bit harder to come by, so doing well at the Slams is the best thing you can do," Patten told BBC Look East."They're the biggest events for prize money and also for ranking points, so it seems like we're timing our runs quite well."The win pushes us up to three and four in the world - I can't believe I'm saying that - so I think we'll go for the number one pair in the world, I don't see why not."Patten and Heliovaara earned A$810,000 (£407,000) between them for their triumph in Melbourne - just over £200,000 each. The match against Bolelli and Vavasorri lasted more than three hours and did not finish until 01.42 local time."I think it's probably the longest doubles match I've ever played. I had to go and ask my coach for a shot of espresso after the first set, which we lost in a really close tie-break, and that kind of set the tone for the rest of the match - it was a war of attrition," said left-handed Englishman from Manningtree in Essex first played tennis at the age of five, and in 2022 won 10 titles on the ATP Challenger tour with fellow Briton Julian teamed up with Heliovaara nine months ago and they have not looked back since winning their first tournament as a pair in Marrakech."It's amazing that it's happened so quickly - it feels like just the blink of an eye," said 28-year-old Patten, who served an ace to clinch victory in Melbourne."It's still a bit surreal. I don't know if that's the jetlag or just [that I] never imagined this would all happen."It was their second Grand Slam title, having also won at Wimbledon last summer, and he and Heliovaara will have a chance to add another at the French Open, which begins on 25 May."Next week we'll be in Dallas, playing on the ATP tour, then I'll have another week off, and then it's Doha, Dubai and straight back over to the States, so it's non-stop," Patten added.
