Lloyd Glasspool and Harri Heliovaara captured their first ATP Tour title on Sunday with a 7-5, 7-6(4) victory against Sander Arends and David Pel at the Open 13 Provence.
The British-Finnish team won 90 per cent of their first-serve points (35/39) and did not face a break point throughout the 85-minute championship match. Glasspool and Heliovaara were competing in their first ATP Tour final.
“At this age, at 31 years old, playing my third ATP Tour main draw, you can’t ask for more than a title,” said Heliovaara. “It feels unbelievable. I still have tears in my eyes and it has been 20 minutes since the match finished. It is a dream come true and it gives us so many opportunities for the future… It is unreal. I still can’t really describe it.”
The unseeded duo has achieved consistent success on the ATP Challenger Tour since they joined forces in November 2020. Glasspool and Heliovaara have reached four finals together at Challenger level, which includes their title run in Gran Canaria last month.
“We have played and won a lot of matches this year on the ATP Challenger Tour,” said Glasspool. “We know each other’s games very well right now. We are flowing and that gives us a big advantage.”
“We got so much confidence from the matches on the ATP Challenger Tour,” said Heliovaara. “It doesn’t matter if we are playing a bigger tournament now, we still feel like we can win every match so that is a great feeling to have that confidence from winning a lot of matches.”
Glasspool and Heliovaara dropped just one set en route to the title in Marseille. In the second round, they defeated top seeds Ken Skupski and Neal Skupski in a Match Tie-break.