The 21st century
Finland · born Helsinki, 1989 · Wimbledon doubles champion with Henry Patten in 2024 and 2026
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2
Wimbledon men's doubles titles, 2024 and 2026, both with Henry Patten
3
Match points saved in the 2024 Wimbledon final
14th
Unseeded pair to win the Wimbledon men's doubles, in 2024
1
World doubles ranking, first reached on 8 June 2026
4
Years away from the tour, 2013 to 2017
Harri Heliövaara was born in Helsinki on 4 June 1989. He won the Australian Open boys' doubles in 2007 with Graeme Dyce and reached No. 194 in the singles rankings in 2011, but in 2013, struggling physically and with results falling away, he stopped playing. Over the next four years he took a bachelor's and a master's degree at Aalto University, interned at McKinsey and at a private equity firm, and worked early shifts at Helsinki Airport.
The Finnish Tennis Federation asked him to play Davis Cup in 2017. He spent two months with a fitness coach, played two ties that year and went back on tour as a doubles player. He won his first ATP title with Lloyd Glasspool at Marseille in 2021, reached the semi-finals of the ATP Finals with him in 2022, and won the 2023 US Open mixed doubles with Anna Danilina, a partner he had met at the sign-in desk.
In April 2024 he paired up with Henry Patten. They won in Marrakech and Lyon and then took Wimbledon as an unseeded pair. They added the 2025 Australian Open and the 2025 ATP Finals, became joint world No. 1 on 8 June 2026, and won Wimbledon again a month later as top seeds.
| Wimbledon 2024 final | Unseeded, with Patten beat Max Purcell and Jordan Thompson 6-7 (7-9), 7-6 (10-8), 7-6 (11-9) in 169 minutes, a final without a single break of serve. They saved three match points: one at 5-6, 30-40 in the second set and two in the second-set tiebreak. Earlier they beat Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori, and Marcelo Arévalo and Mate Pavić in the quarter-finals |
|---|---|
| Wimbledon 2026 final | As top seeds, beat Arévalo and Pavić 7-6 (4), 7-6 (3) on 11 July. Neither pair faced a break point; the champions won 41 of 45 first-serve points and eight of their nine tiebreaks across the fortnight. The first team to win the men's doubles twice since Bob and Mike Bryan in 2011 |
| Other Wimbledons | Third round in 2021 and, with Glasspool, in 2022; missed 2023 for the birth of his second child; quarter-finals with Patten in 2025 as defending champions, beaten by Julian Cash and Lloyd Glasspool |
| Queen's Club | Runner-up in 2022 with Glasspool, his first final on grass, and in 2026 with Patten, beaten by Arévalo and Pavić three weeks before beating them in the Wimbledon final |
| Wimbledon | ||
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | Men's doubles | with Henry Patten |
| 2026 | Men's doubles | with Henry Patten |
Leading grass titles only: the grass majors, tour-level grass events since 1968 and the leading grass championships before 1968. † single source; ‡ sources disagree. Roll of champions
"I need to thank Henry for being the best partner in the world"
The person behind the player.
Helsinki Airport, 2013 to 2017
During his break from tennis he worked at Helsinki Airport from 5 a.m., guiding passengers to check-in and helping arrivals. "Aviation is a passion of mine," he said. He met his wife, Sini, there; she still works at the airport.
Source: ATP Tour, 2024Helsinki, 2010s
He applied to become an airline pilot but did not pass the medical, and also did part-time office work for the Finnish Tennis Federation. "I felt like I always had a good Plan B, going back to school," he said.
Source: ATP Tour, 2024Davis Cup, 2017
His physical problems were later traced to an inflammatory condition that medication has kept under control since 2016. When the federation called him up for Davis Cup in 2017 he decided to try again: "since I know that I only have one life, maybe this was the last opportunity to try tennis if I wanted to."
Source: ATP Tour, 2024Wimbledon, 2023
Ranked No. 8 in doubles, he missed Wimbledon in 2023 to be at home for the birth of his second child. He had counted 238 days away from home the year before. "It's not the end of the world," he said of missing the Championships.
Source: ATP Tour, 2023Flushing Meadows, 2023
At the sign-in for the 2023 US Open mixed doubles he asked Anna Danilina whether she wanted a partner. She said yes, and the new pair won the title.
Source: WikipediaFree membership: player news, the grass court Atlas, the rankings and the grass season calendar.
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