Heliovaara mic'd up: Inside a groundbreaking moment in Washington

After Wimbledon champions Harri Heliovaara and Henry Patten defeated Ivan Dodig and Ben Shelton 6-3, 7-5 in front of a packed crowd Monday evening at the Mubadala Citi DC Open, the teams shook hands and Heliovaara turned to thank the crowd.

“Is anyone going to say [anything]? Give us a clap come on, give us a clap. Yes!” Heliovaara said in a funny moment. “Thank you, thank you. Woohoo! Let’s go Finland!”

The moment was captured because Heliovaara, in an ATP Tour-first, wore a live microphone during the match. As part of the 2024 ATP Tour Doubles Trial, players this week in Washington will be wearing microphones so fans can hear them throughout the match.

“I was happy to do it. I think the main thing is we want to market the doubles, we want to market the doubles players, so we need personalities and this is an excellent way to make those personalities more visible to the fans,” Heliovaara told ATPTour.com. “What's more intimate? What's more interesting than that? I don't think anything... I want to try to make doubles bigger, so I'm more than happy to be part of it.”

“Honoured to be the first one ever to do it. The technology didn't bother me at all. I was wearing a belt and the receiver and the cord and everything, but that didn't bother me at all,” Heliovaara said. “Maybe I was a little bit thinking of what I was saying but it still felt very natural. I'm quite open about my tennis life anyway on my blog and everywhere so it wasn't a problem for me to talk about everything on the mind.”

Throughout the match, it was clear how much positive energy the 35-year-old brings to the court with constant shouts of “Come on”. Heliovaara and Patten also got into specific tactics, providing fans never-before-seen insight into the sport. An example was a discussion the team had about not just targeting Shelton’s body volley, but which side of the body to aim at.

“That could be interesting. Henry was trying to avoid the backhand volley and go more forehand body volley, because he usually struggles with that side more,” Heliovaara said. “Those are very interesting tactics, very interesting for the fans to hear.”

Watch the mic'd up highlights from his match here 👇@mubadalacitidc | #MubadalaCitiDCOpen pic.twitter.com/08dQVyLvds

— ATP Tour (@atptour) July 30, 2024

There was no concern from the Finn’s side about other teams watching his match and seeing his thought process.

“We discussed it [before the match], definitely, yes. But still at the same time, it is clear that when you execute a play, afterwards, the guys will know what we did,” Heliovaara said. “So it doesn't matter if they hear it from what we say, or let's see what we do. So I wasn't that worried about executing some plays during the match and how we interact about those.”

One of the funniest moments captured by Heliovaara’s microphone came before the 10th game of the second set with Patten to serve. The Briton was given a time violation. Shelton quickly told the chair umpire he had not been ready, and Heliovaara said, “Ben is a good guy, listen to him!”

That comment drew laughter from the players on the court and the crowd.

“You want to be focused on what's going on in the match. But I think what's important is to be able to be focused when it matters. But once you get good at focusing, then you can switch it off, joke around and immediately come back to being focused,” Heliovaara said. “When you're young, you can't do that. If you lose the focus, it's very difficult to go back to the present moment, but I think we are such professionals now and we're getting older, more experienced, [so] you can can do it so that it doesn't affect your focus for the next point.

“But it was a nice moment. Ben was laughing, I was trying to crack a joke there. I think the crowd enjoyed that, too.” 

After the match, the microphone picked up many fans congratulating Heliovaara not just on his victory in Washington, but his triumph at Wimbledon.

“Even here in Washington people recognised me and said, ‘Congrats for Wimbledon’. They watched it. Someone came today and cried after the match. I was like, ‘Wow, I've been affecting people's lives like this’… That's pretty special. So I want to give back, I want to make them feel like they can interact with me,” Heliovaara said. “That's why the tournaments exist, so we can provide enjoyment and entertainment for the fans. I think that we should never forget the fans and I enjoy the interaction. I'm an entertainer, so part of it is being there for the fans and making sure they're doing well and that they have a good day.”