From IBM stats man to doubles finalist – Henry Patten’s Wimbledon journey

Henry Patten worked at Wimbledon during Andy Murray’s 2016 title win and is now one victory away from following in the footsteps of the British great.

Patten and Finnish partner Harri Heliovaara will contest the men’s doubles final on Saturday against Australian duo Max Purcell and Jordan Thompson on Centre Court after a brilliant run in only their second grand slam as a team.

Colchester-born Patten and Heliovaara only started to play together from April, but the former could end up being a British winner at this year’s Championships.

“I haven’t quite thought about that one yet,” Patten said.

“At some point you have to face up to that. I’ve been saying previously that we’re just taking it one match at a time.

“And now we’re focusing on the next match, but that is to become Wimbledon champions. I think we have to remind ourselves how well we’ve done to get here.

“Every single year I would watch Wimbledon and it’s surreal for me given my pathway, not a very traditional pathway to the professional game. It’s surreal to even be playing it to be honest.

“I feel very privileged to be able to be a part of a final here.”

Eight years ago Patten would have been found on one of Wimbledon’s outside courts, totting up statistics for IBM, the technology company who collect data during the Championships.

Patten joked he was never good enough to get promoted to a show court, which is largely where he has played during a memorable past fortnight.

He said: “While I was at college, I worked for IBM doing the courtside stats. You’re either put in the outside courts team or if you’re good and switched on, then you get put on the show court team.

“And I was always on the outside! It’s brutal. I don’t know if they’ve changed it now, but it was like two hours on, 40 minutes off and I did it for two years.

“In the first year I was absolutely buzzing because you’re right next to the tennis, it’s amazing.

“And then about four days in you just break down. Maybe that’s why I wasn’t promoted, but it was a good experience.”

Patten had never made it beyond the third round of a grand slam before this year’s Wimbledon, but has replaced memories of work for IBM with an impressive run to the final in SW19.

It has continued a whirlwind couple of months for the 28-year-old, who turned professional in 2020 but made the decision to focus on doubles at the end of a successful 2022 where he won 10 titles with fellow Briton Julian Cash.

After Patten and Cash went their separate ways, Norwich fan-Patten teamed up with 2023 US Open mixed doubles champion Heliovaara in April and with two titles as a pair already, the duo are determined to add a special third.

“I think it’s important to say as well, and I’m very appreciative of this, Harri took a little bit of a gamble to play with me given the gap in the rankings and gap in experience,” Patten added.

“There’s a lot of guys out there that are really focusing on just trying to play in the biggest events they can rather than building a successful partnership. So, I think it’s nice to see that investment can pay off.”