Heliovaara and Patten thwart Rublev and Khachanov to win doubles championship

Harri Heliovaara and Henry Patten defeated Andrey Rublev and Karen Khachanov 4-6, 6-3, [10-8] to win the 2025 China Open men’s doubles championship.

It took just one break of serve on each side to split the opening two sets before the match was decided in a super tiebreak.

After dropping the first set, Heliovaara and Patten regrouped, holding firm on their serve and keeping the pressure on their opponents. They finally earned a crucial break in the eighth game of the second set to level the match.

“They served unbelievably well for one and a half sets,” Heliovaara said. We kept telling ourselves, We will get a chance at one point. We got one chance and used it in the second set.”

The pair carried that momentum into the deciding super tiebreak, where they held their nerve to edge Rublev and Khachanov 10-8 and capture the title, their first in Beijing and second of the season. The title was a welcome salve for the Finnish/British duo, who fell short in a super tiebreak in last year’s final.

“It's been a while since we've won a tournament,” Patten said. “It's been a lot of hard work and a lot of disappointing results. We've been pretty close. So yeah, we're extremely excited.

“Obviously last year we were in the final and won the first set and ended up just losing a very close third set. It's really special to be able to do this. Makes it even more exciting that I'm doing it alongside Harri. He's one of my great friends and partners. There's no feeling in the world that kind of matches this. It's brilliant.”

Beijing is Heliovaara’s 10th career ATP doubles title and Patten’s sixth. Patten credited the support of the local fans for giving the team a much-needed lift.

“Diamond and Lotus, those two arenas are, again, some of the best in the world,” Patten said.

“I'd say these tournaments have some of the best attendance in the world in terms of people being willing to watch doubles and supporting the players and really enjoying the tennis. For us, that is a really big reason why we like to play.”

—Reporting by Connor Greene