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Henry Patten completed a remarkable Wimbledon run by becoming the first British winner of the 2024 Championships with men’s doubles success alongside Finnish partner Harri Heliovaara.
Patten and Heliovaara had only teamed up in April, but dumped out a succession of seeds on the way to a maiden grand slam final together.
Up against Australian pair Max Purcell and Jordan Thompson, Patten and Heliovaara saved three Championship points in the second set before they sealed a superb 6-7 (7) 7-6 (8) 7-6 (11/9) victory in front of a jubilant Centre Court crowd.
It made Colchester-born Patten only the third British player to win the men’s doubles Wimbledon title in the Open era after Neal Skupski and Jonathan Marray.
“Obviously couldn’t have been a closer match and I can’t really remember what happened to be honest,” Patten reflected.
“For me the most special thing is to do it in front of so many people who have come over, my best friends, my family. Thank you all.”
Colchester-born Patten and Heliovaara only started to play together from April, but the former could end up being a British winner at this year’s Championships.
Eight years ago Patten would have been found on one of Wimbledon’s outside courts, totting up statistics for IBM, the technology company who collect data during the Championships.
Patten joked he was never good enough to get promoted to a show court, which is largely where he has played during a memorable past fortnight.
He said: “While I was at college, I worked for IBM doing the courtside stats. You’re either put in the outside courts team or if you’re good and switched on, then you get put on the show court team.
“And I was always on the outside! It’s brutal. I don’t know if they’ve changed it now, but it was like two hours on, 40 minutes off and I did it for two years.
“In the first year I was absolutely buzzing because you’re right next to the tennis, it’s amazing.
“And then about four days in you just break down. Maybe that’s why I wasn’t promoted, but it was a good experience.”
Patten had never made it beyond the third round of a grand slam before this year’s Wimbledon, but has replaced memories of work for IBM with an impressive run to the final in SW19.
It has continued a whirlwind couple of months for the 28-year-old, who turned professional in 2020 but made the decision to focus on doubles at the end of a successful 2022 where he won 10 titles with fellow Briton Julian Cash.
After Patten and Cash went their separate ways, Norwich fan-Patten teamed up with 2023 US Open mixed doubles champion Heliovaara in April and with two titles as a pair already, the duo are determined to add a special third.
“I think it’s important to say as well, and I’m very appreciative of this, Harri took a little bit of a gamble to play with me given the gap in the rankings and gap in experience,” Patten added.
“There’s a lot of guys out there that are really focusing on just trying to play in the biggest events they can rather than building a successful partnership. So, I think it’s nice to see that investment can pay off.”