Henry Patten is one of five Brits competing in the doubles draw at this week’s ATP Finals. The 29-year-old has qualified for the season-ending championships alongside his Finnish partner, Harri Heliovaara, for the second year running, and they won their opening round-robin match on Monday night.
Patten has also been busy off the court, as he popped the question to his girlfriend, Ellie, before playing his opening match in Turin. It might have been the boost he needed before taking to the court in the Inalpi Arena. And Heliovaara got involved when it came to sharing the happy news.
Heliovaara runs a blog, updating fans after his matches and sharing the latest goings-on in the doubles tour, including which pairs will be splitting up and forming new partnerships during the off-season.
After he and Patten beat Christian Harrison and Evan King 6-4 6-4 on Monday, the world No. 4 gave fans an in-depth analysis of the match and shared his and Patten’s plans for the next couple of days. And Heliovaara ended the post with some exciting news.
The Finnish tennis star wrote: “And finally, some news from outside the field. Henry’s girlfriend arrived in Turin from America on Saturday to be part of the cheering crowd, and to everyone’s pleasant surprise, she got an engagement ring on her finger on Sunday morning. I promised to post a picture on my blog too, big congratulations Henry and Ellie!”
Heliovaara added a photo of Patten and his fiancee smiling at the camera, with Ellie flashing her ring.
The tennis off-season often becomes engagement season, as players finally have some long-awaited downtime to pop the question to their partners. But Patten decided to get ahead of the curve, proposing to his girlfriend during his last tournament of the year instead.
The former Wimbledon champion has plenty to be happy about at the moment. As well as his engagement, he and Heliovaara are currently on a five-match unbeaten streak, having lifted the Paris Masters title before heading to the ATP Finals and winning their opening match.
Patten will be hoping that the positive energy can continue throughout the week in Turin, so he and Heliovaara can end the season on a high with another title. The British-Finnish duo reached the semi-finals in Turin last year on their debut as a team, but lost to Marcelo Arevalo and Mate Pavic.
The No. 2 seeds will face the all-British pairing of Joe Salisbury and Neal Skupski in Wednesday’s round-robin match. For now, they’re going to enjoy some time on the practice court – and some Italian food.
In his latest blog post, Heliovaara wrote: “The competition continues on Wednesday for us, so on Tuesday we can train in peace and get the men back to their best.
“And we’ll probably have a couple of partner events on the day’s schedule tomorrow. In addition, we’ll probably have time to eat well, as is the custom here. But on Wednesday we’ll be back in full swing right from the morning, when our match starts at 11:30 [local time]. Vamos!”