Copyright Martin Sidorjak
Canada’s Gabriela Dabrowski (Ottawa, ON) reached her second consecutive WTA 1000 Final on Sunday in Italy, ultimately taking home the runners-up trophy. Dabrowski and partner Guiliana Olmos were defeated by the unseeded team of Veronika Kudermetova and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova at the Italian Open 1-6, 6-4, 10-7. For Dabrowski and Olmos, the Italian Open is the second consecutive WTA 1000 Final in the month of May, having won the Mutua Madrid Open on May 7.
Dabrowski and Olmos have now played 10 tournaments as a team, reaching two finals. Having previously won in Madrid, the pair’s confidence showed early breaking serve twice in the first set to lead 5-1. Securing the first set, Dabrowski and Olmos held serve to take a commanding 6-1 lead.
Starting the second set Dabrowski and Olmos broke serve early to take a 1-0 lead. Kudermetova and Pavlyuchenkova mounted a strong comeback, after a back-and-forth from both teams breaking serve, Kudermetova and Pavlyuchenkova took a commanding 4-2 lead, only for Dabrowski and Olmos to break serve again (and hold), leveling the second set at 4-4. Ultimately Kudermetova and Pavlyuchenkova took the second set 6-4 to set up a championship tie-break..
In the deciding tie-break, Dabrowski and Olmos struggled to contain the power from Kudermetova and Pavlyuchenkova despite strong play at net form Dabrowski. After taking a commanding lead at 9-6, Kudermetova and Pavlyuchenkova converted their second championship point to win the title 10-7.
Dabrowski and Olmos were the No. 2 seed in the 2022 Italian Open, receiving a Bye in the first round. The pair were tested in the Round of 16 and Quarterfinals, defeating Alexandrova and Danilina (7-5, 6-3, 10-7) and Aoyama and Chan (7-5, 2-6, 10-5), respectively. In the Semifinals Dabrowski and Olmos defeated the No. 6 seed Hradecka and Mirza 6-1, 6-2.
Dabrowski and Olmos will now shift focus to Roland Garros as the pair will be a favourite to compete for the title in Paris. Dabrowski currently holds three WTA 1000 titles, including Madrid (2022), Montreal (2021), and Miami (2017). The Canadian doubles specialist holds 11 women’s doubles titles and two mixed doubles titles (Australian Open and French Open 2018). For Olmos, this was her second consecutive Italian Open final having previously won with Canadian Sharon Fichman in 2021.
