Henry Patten, Harri Heliovaara shrug off contentious first set to win Australian Open doubles title

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Henry Patten and Harri Heliovaara rallied from losing a contentious first set to win the Australian Open men’s doubles title 6-7 (16), 7-6 (5), 6-3 over the Italian pairing of Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori.

The Italians had a point overturned while serving for the first set because of a foul shot on Saturday. Chair umpire Thomas Sweeney called Vavassori for an infringement in the 10th game because his racket crossed the line of the net as he hit a volley that he thought would earn set point.

Heliovaara and Patten were belatedly awarded the point instead and broke for 5-5 immediately, but couldn’t convert three set points in the 12th game and seven in a 24-minute, 34-point tiebreaker.

They rallied to win the next two sets to add a title at Melbourne Park to their Wimbledon championship.

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The first set lasted 87 minutes and was not without controversy. Sweeney’s intervention threw Vavassori and Bolelli off their game for a while, but the pair managed to save 10 set points before converting the sixth that they had when Bolelli hit a forehand winner to clinch the tiebreaker.

Bolelli won the 2015 Australian Open doubles title with Fabio Fognini and was aiming to be part of only the third Italian men’s doubles combination to win a major championship.

Bolelli and Vavassori lost last year’s final at Melbourne Park to India’s Rohan Bopanna and Australia’s Matthew Ebden, and also lost the French Open final.

The doubles combination was trying to set up a big weekend for Italian tennis, with top-ranked Jannik Sinner of Italy aiming to defend his singles title against No. 2 Alexander Zverev on Sunday.

“Tough final—one of the best I’ve played,” Bolelli said as the presentation ceremony stretched toward 2 a.m. Sunday local time. “We tried this year, another final. We played a really good tournament. We didn’t get the trophy, but we’re going to come back next year and try again.”

Patten acknowledged Heliovaara, the 2007 Australian Open boys doubles champion, for helping to complete another Grand Slam win, and the crowd for helping to keep them both motivated.

“Bloody hell, what an evening! Thanks to everyone who stayed,” he told the crowd at Rod Laver Arena in the early hours of Sunday. “You guys are a little bit crazy, but I love you for it.”