A year of Heliovaara & Patten: From Marrakech to Slam success

Harri Heliovaara still remembers the moment he pictured a future playing alongside Henry Patten.

“I watched one of his matches in Stockholm in October 2023, and I went, ‘Hmmm’,” recalled Heliovaara recently to ATPTour.com. “It was against [Andrey] Golubev and [Denis] Molchanov. He lost that match. It wasn't his best performance, but I still saw something.

“I talked to [the LTA’s Senior Performance Advisor] Louis Cayer, he recommended playing with Henry. It didn't happen immediately. We both had to be available, and there's many things [to consider]. To be brutally honest, our rankings weren't at the same place. Of course, we have to think about that too. But, at least from my side, I had my eyes on him!”

Perhaps not even Heliovaara could have envisaged how accurate his instincts would turn out to be. On 2 April 2024, he and Patten stepped out to compete for the first time together in the first round at the Grand Prix Hassan II. They went on to lift the trophy that week in Marrakech and have since won four further tour-level titles, including major crowns at Wimbledon and the Australian Open, in a whirlwind first 365 days as a team.

“I think Harri's been pretty generous there,” reflected Patten. “If we look at the end of [2023], I was committed with Francisco Cabral, another great guy, and Harri's ranking was much better than mine. So for Harri, I think that's a tough decision to say, ‘I'm going to take a step back here in the tournaments I can get into, to play with this guy. That's a huge risk for your career.

“We spoke about it a little bit, at various times. And then we both got to a place where you sent a message to Calvin [Betton] my coach, and said, ‘Okay, let's just do it'. And what a great decision that was, Harri. Well done!”

The Finnish-British pair ultimately won 21 of their first 24 matches together (including eight of nine encounters at ATP Challenger Tour level). They built on the stunning start to their partnership with a dream run to the title at Patten’s home major of Wimbledon, while they also triumphed at the site of Heliovaara’s initial moment of ‘enlightenment’, the BNP Paribas Nordic Open in Stockholm, en route to sealing a spot at the season-ending Nitto ATP Finals.

While initial on-court results made it immediately clear that Heliovaara and Patten’s games were well-matched, both allude to a special off-court atmosphere, also fostered by both players’ individual teams, which helped accelerate their progress.

“That week in Marrakech was quite a special week, I think, in lots of ways,” recalled Patten. “Harri's coach Boris [Chernov] was there. My coach Calvin was there. They now coach both of us, whenever they are with us. My girlfriend was there, so it was a fantastic week off court as well. We had a lot of fun together, and it clicked. It feels like a long time ago now.”

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Heliovaara added: “It makes everything easier. It's so natural. We get along off court, we're more than happy to spend time together. I think one key aspect is that the team works very well together. We both have our individual coaches. They alternate which tournaments they do. We have backing from the British Federation and the LTA. Louis Cayer, who helps us. I was familiar with him in the past. He helped a lot.

“Everybody's working towards the same goal. Everybody shares the vision. Everybody shares pretty much the same values in life too. Of course, it makes everything very simple, and we can be very direct. We don't need to hide anything or blame anyone.”

In sync on the court, but not necessarily always off it. Heliovaara has one of the ATP Tour’s most intriguing tennis backstories: The Finn retired from tennis in 2013 with a dream of becoming a pilot, before returning four years later and becoming one of the world’s best doubles players. Patten, who counts a student job collecting data for IBM courtside at Wimbledon among his own previous career experiences, cites the two players' approaches to travelling as one major difference.

“It's a lot better now, but I have a slight phobia of flying. So we couldn't be more opposite in terms of our ‘passion’ for aviation,” said the 28-year-old Briton. “I really do not enjoy travelling, whereas Harri will happily take extra flights between tournaments. In Australia in January, for example, I took the direct flight from Adelaide to Melbourne, and Harri took a tiny little plane that stopped off in Mount Gambier, just so he could fly on this specific plane.

“I'm so jealous of him, because you're so lucky to be able to enjoy travelling, a passion of yours. A passion of mine is golf. I don't get to golf while I'm on the plane to Melbourne or Adelaide.”

Heliovaara concurred: “This is living the dream. Basically, when I was 10 years old, I was dreaming of flying everywhere. Now I’m doing it. I mean, I'm not getting paid to fly, but it's still part of my job to fly around.”

Despite their different journeys to Melbourne, Heliovaara and Patten ended the 2025 Australian Open the same way: celebrating inside Rod Laver Arena after winning their second major title. Having also reached an ATP 500 final in Dubai this year, the pair has a 55-18 tour-level record, according to the Infosys ATP Win/Loss Index, and is the leader in the 2025 PIF ATP Live Doubles Teams Rankings. The two players are working hard to ensure the successes keep coming.

_{^{Heliovaara and Patten win the 2025 Australian Open. Photo Credit: David Gray/AFP via Getty Images}}

“I think there's always stuff that we're working on,” said Patten. “In Australia, for example, we really wanted to work on our net game, ‘In the wall’, as we call it, when both of us are at the net. We were kind of struggling in those situations. We managed to patch it up pretty quickly, and in the Australian Open I think we both agreed it was probably the best that that had ever been."

Heliovaara and Patten are preparing to return to the clay, the surface on which they made such a sudden impact 12 months ago, at the upcoming Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters. They will hope that a deep run at the ATP Masters 1000 can kick-start a second chapter of success after a statement first year together.

“I don't think we were even dreaming of winning a Slam in the following 12 months,” said Heliovaara, casting his mind back to a year ago. “We were not even dreaming of being in the Top 10 this quickly. I think we both had belief in our partnership, but it has exceeded all expectations, happening so fast. I believed it could happen one day, but everything that has happened is crazy.”