Henry Patten and Harri Heliovaara have gained Wimbledon and managed to concuss one another of their first six months as a doubles workforce, and now a deep US Open run is their purpose.
Concussion accidents occur incessantly involved sports activities comparable to rugby and soccer, however it’s definitely not the case in tennis.
But such a blow is precisely what Britain’s Patten and Finland’s Heliovaara suffered once they clashed heads in a males’s doubles match in Montreal final month.
Regardless of the harm, the pair are again in motion and bidding for extra Grand Slam success in New York, the place they’ve already gained via two rounds with out dropping a set.
“It was uncommon and now we are able to nearly see the humorous aspect of it,” Patten informed BBC Sport, as he mirrored on the banging of heads.
He added, jokingly: “One of many causes I play tennis is as a result of it isn’t a contact sport, I am delicate.”
Patten and Heliovaara had been 4-2 forward in a first-set tie-break towards American Ben Shelton and Kazakhstan’s Alexander Bublik in Montreal when the accident that left them sidelined for just a few days befell.
“We had been feeling fairly good till Ben Shelton put up, to be sincere, not an excellent lob and it was by some means straight down the center of us,” Patten mentioned.
“In some way we completely smacked face to face which left us each with a light concussion, which was a primary for each of us and does not occur very a lot in tennis.”
They performed on for one more quarter-hour, dropping the tie-break earlier than deciding to name it a day and retire from the match.
“I instantly felt fairly nauseous, and stability was a bit of bit off stability,” Patten mentioned.
Finland’s Heliovaara added: “After quarter-hour or so you possibly can really feel this was not a very good factor that occurred. It took me greater than per week to really feel near regular and nearly two weeks to make sure I am lastly again to 100%.”
Patten and Heliovaara, who solely joined forces in April, are the third seeds at this fortnight’s US Open, however they had been unseeded once they gained a thrilling Wimbledon final in July.
They’ll face eleventh seeds Wesley Koolhof of the Netherlands and Croatia’s Nikola Mektic within the third spherical on Sunday.