MELBOURNE — Considering the challenges Ottawa’s Gabriela Dabrowski and her doubles partner Erin Routliffe faced ahead of the Australian Open, including limited preparation, a semifinal finish in the women’s doubles was a good result.
But the two had their chances against the newly formed team of Hsieh Su-Wei of Taiwan and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia before falling 7-6 (3), 3-6, 6-3 Friday at Melbourne Park.
“Honestly, we could have gone out in the first or the second round, so I'm really proud that we made it to the semifinals with not a lot of prep,” Dabrowski said. “I think we did amazing, considering.”
Dabrowski and Routliffe, the No. 2 seeds, battled back after losing the first set in each of their first three matches in Melbourne, relying on their doubles prowess to overcome uneven performances.
On Friday, they faced an unorthodox pair. Hsieh, at 39, brings an otherworldly sense of anticipation and is a menace at finishing points at the net. Ostapenko, better known as a singles player but currently ranked No. 6 in doubles, adds the firepower to set up her partner for the finish.
Both Hsieh and Ostapenko boast impressive doubles resumés, but as a pair, they’re untested — their first tournament together was just two weeks ago in Adelaide, where they fell in the opening round.
Dabrowski and Routliffe, who won the 2023 US Open in only their fourth tournament as a team and finished the 2024 season as champions at the year-end WTA Tour Finals in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, found themselves woefully short of training time to start this season.
A rib injury to Routliffe carried over through the off-season and into the early part of January.
The duo wasn’t able to train, or even play a warm-up tournament to get ready for the first Grand Slam tournament of 2025.
Still, they were up 3-0 — two of those games breaks of serve — within the first 10 minutes of Friday’s semifinal. And they served for the first set at 5-4.
After a gruelling 13-minute game that included three set points, they were broken and ultimately dropped the first-set tiebreak.
“That's the ideal start you want in every match. Obviously, we'll try to do that in every match we play, double break. That was good. But then, I definitely didn't make as many first serves as I would like,” Routliffe said. “But I know it was a really good start. If we could start every match like that, that would be perfect.”
Dabrowski and Routliffe came back strongly in the second set. But despite a reasonably close scoreline in the deciding set, Hsieh and Ostapenko — the No. 3 seeds based on their individual doubles rankings — rolled to victory.
“I think they're both tough to play separately and obviously tough to play together. They're just very different. Ostapenko served really, really well today — especially in that third set. And I think Hsieh is just tricky because she makes you put the ball away a couple of extra times,” said Routliffe, a Montreal resident raised in Caledon, Ont. who was born in New Zealand and now represents that country internationally.
Hsieh and Ostapenko will play the No. 1 seeds Katerina Siniakova and Taylor Townsend in the women’s doubles final on Sunday.
Dabrowski, 32 and Routliffe, 29, have been through a lot in the last nine months.
Dabrowski recently revealed that last April, she was diagnosed with breast cancer after a lump she had felt for nearly a year was found to be malignant.
Through the spring she had two surgeries at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Fla. and missed the 2024 clay-court swing from April through mid-June, including Roland Garros.
After recovery and rehab, Dabrowski postponed further treatment to compete at Wimbledon and the Paris Olympics, where she claimed a bronze medal in mixed doubles with Félix Auger-Aliassime.
Following that, she underwent radiation and began endocrine therapy.
Dabrowski said the experience transformed her perspective, turning “I have to do this” into “I get to do this,” as she embraced a deeper gratitude for playing professional tennis.
Her on-court demeanour, so negative early in her career, has steadily improved over the past few years. Dabrowski said her diagnosis served as a reality check, further fuelling her ongoing positive transformation.
The pair will next compete in two major WTA 1000 events, Doha and Dubai, next month.
But first, they’ll focus on the hard training they missed during the off-season.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 24, 2025.
Stephanie Myles, The Canadian Press
