By Tony Fairbairn at Wimbledon
- Henry Patten and Harri Heliovaara knocked out fifth seeds Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori in their Wimbledon opener in a semi-successful opening two rounds for British players.
LONDON, ENGLAND – Henry Patten caused a big opening round shock in the doubles event in what has been a good start for British players so far.
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Patten and Heliovaara knock out fifth seeds
The main headline from the opening few days of doubles action was Henry Patten reaching the third round alongside Harri Heliovaara.
It’s been a successful last few months for the duo who have won three challengers in the last few months and they have continued that run at Wimbledon.
Despite a tough draw, Patten and Heliovaara remained unfazed as they knocked out fifth seeds and Roland Garros runners-up Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori in straight sets.
The Italian duo had won Hallen in the build-up to Wimbledon but were convincingly beaten by Patten and Heliovaara.
After that match the British-Finland duo backed up their win by defeating Pedro Martinez and Jaume Munar to reach the third round and will not meet another seed until the quarter-finals.
It’s been a decent tournament for the Brits in the men’s doubles tournament as Patten’s old partner Julian Cash is into the second round alongside Robert Galloway with the duo set to meet 16th seeds Sadio Doumbia and Fabien Reboul next. The French duo knocked out British wildcards Oliver Crawford and Kyle Edmund in the opening round.
There has also been success for third seeds Joe Salisbury and Rajeev Ram as they are set to meet Andreas Mies and John-Patrick Smith in the second round. Reigning champion Neal Skupski survived a scare in his first round alongside Michael Venus as they narrowly defeated Austrian duo Alexander Erler and Lucas Miedler. Completing the British line-up in the second round is Lloyd Glasspool as he and Jean-Julien Rojer are set to face Sander Gille and Joran Vliegen in the second round.
An honourable Brits mention goes to Dan Evans and Henry Searle as the wildcards pushed sixth seeds Santiago Gonzalez and Edouard Roger-Vasselin close but ultimately lost in three sets. Apart from Bolelli and Vavassori’s exit the only other noticeable elimination has been 13th seeds Hugo Nys and Jan Zielinski losing in a last set tiebreak to the unique pairing of Sebastian Baez and Dustin Brown as the tournament is set for an exciting second week.
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Nicholls knocks out sixth seeds to reach round three
On the women’s side, Olivia Nicholls has followed a similar path to Patten and has reached the third round alongside Slovakian Tereza Mihalikova.
The duo knocked out sixth seeds Demi Schuurs and Luisa Stefani in the opening round and they only dropped four games in the process.
In the following match they backed up their win by only dropping two games against Magda Linette and Peyton Stearns to reach the third round where they will play ninth seed Lyudmyla Kichenok and Jelena Ostapenko.
This run has come out of nowhere for the pairing as this is only their third tournament as a doubles team but are cruising past their opposition and will now play for a spot in the quarter-finals.
Other noticeable mentions go to Emily Appleton and Yuriko Lily Miyazaki after the British duo won a last set tiebreak against Xiyu Wang and Lin Zhu to reach the second round.
The British duo claimed an epic tiebreak 11-9 and will now face top seeds Su-Wei Hsieh and Elise Mertens after they cruised past British wildcards Alicia Barnett and Freya Christie.
There was also a good effort from Harriet Dart and Maia Lumsden in their opening round match before losing in three sets to Roland Garros finalists Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini.
In terms of seeds, 13th seed Giuliana Olmos and Alexandra Panova crashed out in the first round to Marta Kostyuk and Elena-Gabriela Ruse, a team that have gone deep at Grand Slams before. Meanwhile 11th seeds Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula survived a huge first round test against Anhelina Kalinina and Dayana Yastremska to prevail.
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