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Heliovaara and Patten win epic Australian Open men's doubles / Photo: DAVID GRAY - AFP
Heliovaara and Patten win epic Australian Open men's doubles
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.
The men's singles and women's doubles titles will be decided on Sunday, the 15th and final day of the tournament.
Defending champion Jannik Sinner faces Alexander Zverev for the men's crown in a battle between the two top-ranked players in the world.
W.Kretschmer--BlnAP
