JUBILANT Henry Patten went from stats man to Wimbledon champion on Centre Court in eight years.
The Essex giant, 28, used to jot down stats for IBM computers on the outside courts in 2016 in the year that Andy Murray was crowned singles champion for the second time.
Now, he is in the stats book himself as a Wimbledon men’s doubles champion with Finnish pal Harri Heliovaara after surviving THREE Championship points.
The Anglo-Scandi pair won 6-7 7-6 7-6 against Australians Max Purcell and Jordan Thompson in two hours and 49 minutes.
This is the longest doubles match of this year’s tournament and the third set took 64 minutes.
Heliovaara, 35, used to work at Helsinki airport for several years before returning to tennis.
And it was a gamble to join up with Paten – who was ranked 157th in the world last year – in Morocco in April.
Before Patten, the only Brits to lift this trophy post-war was Jonathan Marray (2012) and Neal Skupski (2023) but he will now split £650,000 with his partner.
Playing in front of a decent crowd that included ex-BBC presenter Sue Barker, Colchester-born Patten said: “It couldn’t have been a closer match.
“The most special thing is to do it in front of so many people who have come over, family members and best friends. Thank you.”
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Heliovaara, who lifted his shirt in excitement and cried on court, said: “We got lucky. The tears say it all. It’s very emotional.”
Sydney-born Purcell, 26, said: “It would have been nice to have had the extra two sets to play with this time.
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“I’m glad it was a great match for the crowd. I’m super happy for the bots, they deserved it.”
Thompson, 30, said: “I’m devastated. We were so close, those Championships points, a tough break in the tie-break. It’s the way tennis goes. It’s tough.”
