British tennis player Henry Patten says playing in a second Grand Slam final in the space of six months is “a little bit scary”.

Patten and Finnish partner Harri Heliovaara, the reigning Wimbledon champions, will take on third seeds Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori at the Australian Open on Saturday.

And they will have plenty of waiting to do beforehand as the match follows the women’s singles final between Aryna Sabalenka and Madison Keys, and has been given an estimated start time of 22:00 in the evening (11:00 GMT) at the Rod Laver Arena.

“It’s going to be an interesting one. I’m not sure I’ve ever played a match that’s going to start as late as that,” Patten told BBC Essex.

“I hope I’m not going to wake up too early, buzzing already, because there’s going to be a lot of down time and anxious waiting before we get to go on court. But we’ve done it plenty of times before and hopefully it’ll all go to plan.”

Patten and Heliovaara, who only teamed up nine months ago, defeated Germany’s Kevin Krawietz and Tim Puetz 6-4 3-6 7-6 (10-7) to reach the final in Melbourne.

The 28-year-old from Manningtree in Essex also reached the mixed double semi-finals with Olivia Williams, so practice time is likely to be kept short as they look to kill time before going on court against Bolelli and Vavasorri.

“We played our semi-final yesterday (Thursday), it was a long match and I pulled up a little bit sore after that, both physically and mentally. We’ve played a lot of tennis so I don’t feel I have to play too much more,” he added.

“We have a lot of free time as tennis players so definitely (watch) movies, definitely (listen to) music, I like to play a bit of chess here and there, read books, also some professional stuff, looking after the body like I mentioned, has to go on.”