Harri Heliovaara and Henry Patten have been crowned men’s doubles champions after defeating Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori in a thrilling three-set battle 6(16)-7 7-6(5) 6-3, finishing at 1:42am this morning, making it the latest ever finish for a grand slam final in recorded history.
However, the players were fuming over the late finish, with the match, which has been labelled as one of the matches of the tournament, being played in front of a virtually empty stadium at its conclusion after a spectacular women’s final between Aryna Sabalenka and Madison Keys. Vavassori made a plea to Tournament Director Craig Tiley in the post-match presentation to not schedule doubles matches so late in future years and doubled down on his comments in press.
"It’s not worth it for the tournament because the doubles final can also be really good for the crowd and no-one is going to stay after three hours of a women’s match," said the Italian.
"We started very late, we have to do doping at 3am, press at 3am, it’s not fair for the players."
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Vavassori revealed that he had spoken to the tournament operations team before the match after encountering a similar experience last year when the pair finished runner-up to Rohan Bopanna and Matthew Ebden.
"I already spoke to the [tournament] organisation before the match [about the late start time]. Last year, we didn’t have the power to say anything because we were still behind in the rankings, but now we have a little bit more of a powerful voice. Hopefully it can be a little bit better [in the future]. I hope for next year they can change."
Coach of the victorious team of Heliovaara and Patten, Calvin Betton, also criticised the situation, saying that the doubles players were treated like “second-class citizens.”
“They really shouldn’t be playing at this time. The court was free for four and a half hours this afternoon… tomorrow, the women’s doubles final is being played at 3pm and I don’t really understand why they couldn’t have done that today," Betton said.
"I don’t want to complain too much but it’s really not on… there’s an element of second-class citizens sticking them on late at night… [Bolelli and Vavassori] played last year and said they went on at a similar time… they deserve better than playing to a stadium that’s 10% full because it’s 1 o’clock in the morning."
Heliovaara was more circumspect about the situation, saying that while it was unusual, it was the same playing conditions for both teams.
"I have never, ever played tennis at this time of the day. I have to say that," he admitted. "I don't know if the opponents did it too, but there were a couple of times during the match I was feeling a little tired, and then I realized that everybody must be feeling tired. That's not an excuse because everybody else would also have the same excuse.
Patten was also measured in his response, suggesting that the tournament had to balance a number of factors in determining scheduling.
"I guess on one hand you would say, no [it wasn’t right to play a final at that time], because look how late we finished, but then on the other hand, you say, well, I don't know how long it was, but it was, what, three hours. Then it makes it difficult to put that before a woman's singles final and get a crowd in for it. I don't know. It's difficult."
This is Heliovaara and Patten’s second grand slam title after winning Wimbledon last year.
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