The fourth final was the charm this season for Lloyd Glasspool and Harri Heliovaara.
After falling short in their first three tour-level finals of the year, the British-Finnish duo lifted their first ATP Tour trophy of the season on Sunday when they defeated fourth seeds Rohan Bopanna and Matwe Middelkoop 6-2, 6-4 to win the Hamburg European Open. The unseeded duo did not lose a set at the ATP 500.
“We really clicked this week. Of course we’ve had some good results, especially this year and on clay I think at the beginning of this year we didn’t feel that comfortable,” Heliovaara said. “Now it almost feels like the best surface for us because we’re serving well, but we also give very big pressure to the opponents with our aggressive return game.
“We feel very good together on the court, great chemistry and just enjoy playing. That’s an important thing.”
[ATP APP]
Glasspool and Heliovaara had lost their only previous ATP Head2Head meeting against Bopanna and Middelkoop in a heartbreaking final-set tie-break in this year’s Roland Garros quarter-finals. But in Hamburg they saved all three break points they faced to triumph after 64 minutes.
“I think we’ve been playing really well all week, it’s just naturally started to feel better and better,” Glasspool said. “I think Harri’s serving made a big difference in this match particularly. I didn’t serve as good, but he got through service games quickly, held easily, which really helped us and as I said we were just both were naturally playing well by the end of the week, so it was just good all around.”