LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's Henry Patten and Finland's Harri Heliovaara beat Australians Max Purcell and Jordan Thompson 6-7(7) 7-6(8) 7-6(11-9) in an absorbing men's doubles final at Wimbledon on Saturday to clinch their first grand slam titles.
The unseeded duo of Patten and Heliovaara started playing together only three months ago but ousted seeded pairs en route to the final to meet the Australians, who had knocked out the top seeds Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos in the semis.
Remarkably, the match had no breaks of serve as each set went into a tiebreak and with the pressure mounting with each game, Patten and Heliovaara saved three championship points in the second set to force a decider.
After nearly three hours on court, Patten, a former Wimbledon statistician, and his Finnish partner edged the Australians to win an epic match, receiving a standing ovation from the Centre Court crowd.
"You're all amazing out there. It couldn't have been a closer match. I can't really remember what happened. I'm sure Harri's the same," Patten said.
While Patten had never moved past the third round at a grand slam before, Heliovaara had reached two quarter-finals and the emotions got the better of the Finnish player who was seen sobbing on the court.
"I admit we got a bit lucky today but sometimes we need luck to win a tennis match... The tears say it all, it's very emotional," he said.
In an entertaining and nail-biting first set, the Australian duo were virtually unstoppable on serve, losing just two points but Patten and Heliovaara were also up to the task.
It was initially one-way traffic in the tiebreak as Purcell and Thompson forged ahead when the British-Finnish duo made several errors, giving the Australians five set points, but Patten stepped up under pressure to save four.
But Purcell and Thompson rediscovered their rhythm and took the set when Heliovaara's return went just wide.
The Australians continued to serve well in the second set as their ace count also went up, with Patten and Heliovaara having no answers on how to break them even as the set went with serve until 6-5.
CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS
Purcell and Thompson finally had the first break point of the match -- a championship point on Heliovaara's serve -- but Patten came to his rescue at the net with a fine volleyed winner to force another tiebreak.
Patten and Heliovaara saved championship points twice in the tiebreak on some tense rallies before taking the second set and forcing a decider, leaving the Australians confounded during the changeover as the crowd roared its approval.
The final set was more of the same on serve but had more rallies as both pairs refused to be the first ones to blink, before the unheralded pair of Patten and Heliovaara prevailed and sank to their knees.
"I'm devastated. We were so close, we had championship points... This is the way tennis goes," said Thompson.
Purcell, who won the Wimbledon doubles title in 2022, praised their opponents.
"It would have been nice to have the extra two sets," he said amid laughter.
"But I'm super happy for these boys, they deserve it."
(Reporting by Rohith Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Toby Davis)
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