In short
Max Purcell and Jordan Thompson failed to convert on three championship points during their loss to Harri Heliövaara and Henry Patten in the men’s doubles final.
Purcell and Thompson lost 6-7 (7/9), 7-6 (10/8), 7-6 (11/9) to Heliövaara and Patten.
What’s next?
Australia’s Emerson Jones will contest the girls’ singles final after winning her semi.
Max Purcell and Jordan Thompson have lost the Wimbledon men’s doubles final after holding three championship points.
The pair was on the verge of continuing the rich tradition of Australian doubles winners at Wimbledon, only to have the title dramatically snatched away from them by Finland’s Harri Heliövaara and Briton Henry Patten.
In what will go down as one of the great Wimbledon doubles finals, Heliövaara and Patten prevailed in a thrilling deciding super tie-breaker, 6-7 (7/9), 7-6 (10/8), 7-6 (11/9).
Purcell and Thompson, seeded 15th in the tournament, had for long parts of the match looked set to emerge victorious, as they were dominant behind their serves.
On three occasions, they were just one point away from becoming the seventh Australian men’s doubles team in the Open era to lift the crown.
They had a championship point at 6-5 in the second set, and another two came and went in the subsequent tie-break.
Thompson, in particular, looked pained by one of the easier volleys he had missed all day on the third match point at 8-7.
“Beyond devastated,” Thompson told the Centre Court crowd after the match.
Later, Thompson said: “Plain and simple, it just sucks. Match points, one point away from being a Wimbledon doubles champion.”
Purcell won the Wimbledon doubles title with fellow Australian Matt Ebden two years ago in a five-set thriller.
He was upset Wimbledon organisers had since reduced the men’s doubles finals from five to three sets.
“It would have been nice to have the extra two sets to play with this time, for sure,” Purcell said.
The last hope of Australian success at this year’s Wimbledon lies on the final day.
Exciting 16-year-old Gold Coast prospect Emerson Jones became the first Australian girl since Ash Barty 13 years ago to reach the junior singles final.
Third seed Jones defeated American Iva Jović 7-5, 6-1 in her semifinal.
Jones will now face Slovakian Renáta Jamrichová , who defeated her soundly 6-4, 6-1 in the Australian Open girls’ final in January.
AAP