Briton Patten reaches first Wimbledon doubles final

Henry Patten has reached his first Wimbledon men's doubles final by knocking out fellow Briton and 2023 champion Neal Skupski.

Patten, alongside Finnish partner Harri Heliovaara, beat ninth seeds Skupski and Michael Venus of New Zealand 6-4 7-6 (7-1) on Court One.

They will face Max Purcell and Jordan Thompson in Saturday's final after the Australian duo defeated Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos of Spain and Argentina respectively in straight sets.

The unseeded pair broke Venus' serve at the start of the match and held their break advantage right through a tense opening set.

The second set stayed on serve with underdogs Patten and Heliovaara dominating the tie-break.

Incredibly, Patten, 28, had not gone beyond the third round of a Grand Slam before this fortnight and has only won two tournaments on tour, both with Heliovaara who he started partnering this year.

They are on a dream run having also squeezed past French Open winners Marcelo Arevalo and Mate Pavic in a match-deciding tie-break in the quarter-finals.

Skupski was hoping to reach his second successive final having lifted the title with previous partner Wesley Koolhof of the Netherlands last year.

He competes in the quarter-finals of the mixed doubles with American partner Desirae Krawczyk later on Thursday.

Venus, a former partner of Jamie Murray, finished runner-up in the men's doubles in 2018.

While Heliovaara, who won the mixed doubles title at the US Open last year, is into his first men's Grand Slam doubles final.