Heliovaara, Patten win epic Australian Open men’s doubles

MELBOURNE: Harri Heliovaara of Finland and Britain´s Henry Patten won an epic late-night men´s doubles final to add the Australian Open crown to their Wimbledon title on Saturday. The sixth seeds lost a mammoth first set lasting 87 minutes before pulling through 6-7 (16/18), 7-6 (7/5), 6-3 against Italian third seeds Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori.

The first-set tiebreak alone went on for 24 minutes, with the match lasting more than three hours and concluding at nearly 2:00 am. It was another agonising near miss for the Italian pairing, who have now lost two Melbourne finals in a row and were also defeated in the French Open title decider last year.