Erin Routlfffe Wins Prestigious WTA Finals With Gaby Dabrowski

Erin Routliffe and Gaby Dabrowski have pulled off one of the most significant victories in their careers to claim the title at the WTA Finals in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

In the final they defeated Taylor Townsend from the United States and the Czech Republic’s Katerina Siniakova 7-5 6-3.

Only the best eight doubles teams over the year get invited to the WTA Finals and Routliffe and Dabrowski have gone through the entire tournament, which also includes a pool stage, without losing a match.

Although Siniakova and Townsend were the No 8 seeds this week, that was mainly because they hadn’t played together as long as many others and there was some inevitability about the final being between these two teams.

Routliffe and Dabrowski lost in the Wimbledon final to Siniakova and Townsend earlier this year, so this victory avenges that defeat and makes this the biggest win for the Kiwi/ Canadian pairing since they won the US Open last year.

As had been the case throughout this tournament, it was a slow start for Routliffe and Dabrowski, with the latter having her serve broken in the opening game. But she and Routliffe are experienced enough to know that getting broken early isn’t fatal and they were able to break Townsend in the next game.

The match then settled down, but the crucial game came when Siniakova served at 5-6.

After getting out to a 40-15 lead, Routliffe played a great crosscourt volley on the next point, Dabrowski ripped a winning return on a second serve at 40-30 and on set point the Canadian put away a smash.

In the second set Siniakova served at 3-4 and lost the first three points, to give their opponents four break points, but they only needed one of them as Dabrowski hit a backhand winner down the line.

So it was down to Dabrowski to serve for the championship. She and Routliffe stayed composed as they went up 40-0. Although they couldn’t convert the first three match points, Siniakova couldn't return a serve to her body on the fourth.

Routliffe and Dabrowski looked overwhelmed with joy as they celebrated on court taking in a moment they’ll cherish forever.

During the trophy presentation Dabrowski explained what this victory meant for her and Routliffe.

“I believe that our doubles partnership is extremely special,” Dabrowski said.

“It's not often that you can play doubles with someone who you feel very supported by, someone who's not only an amazing player, but a great friend and who has beautiful family and friends around them as well.

“They make me feel so included in their group. And I'm a little bit of an introvert, and so I really appreciate everyone bringing the best out of me. So yes, our partnership's been amazing, and we can't wait for next year.”

Routliffe went on to thank the big crowd who came out to watch this match.

“It's awesome for you guys to come watch doubles, we love it.” Routliffe said.

“I can't wait to play for you guys again, we’ve had the most amazing experience. I really cannot put into words how amazing this week has been.

“Gaby, thank you for playing with me. She talked about our partnership a little bit, she’s always a lot better with words than I am.

“So I'm just going say thank you so much, Gaby, to our team and everybody, we're so excited to come back and thank you so much.”

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