When Gabriela Dabrowski took to Instagram to announce the end of an era with teammate Erin Routliffe, three words perfectly summed up their time together on the court.
“Titles, tears, and triumphs,” wrote Dabrowski. From the start, the Canadian-Kiwi team clicked and quickly became one of the WTA’s best duos, winning a handful of titles over their two and a half years together.
It all began on familiar grounds. Ottawa-native Dabrowski and former Canada Games champion Routliffe first teamed up at the 2023 National Bank Open in Montreal. Unseeded, the two earned their first win as a team in their opening match against Karolina Pliskova and Donna Vekic before finishing in round two.
Weeks following another second-round result in Cincinnati, Dabrowski and Routliffe were set for their first Grand Slam in tandem at the year’s US Open.
Entering as the sixteenth seeds, the duo made the quarter-finals where they would face sixth-seeds Leylah Annie Fernandez and Taylor Townsend. After dropping the opening set, Dabrowski and Routliffe found a different gear. The Canadian-Kiwi team rallied to seal the win then, in the semifinal, they snapped Su-Wei Hsieh and Xinyu Wang’s 16-match winning streak at majors with a straight-sets victory to reach the final.
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Former US Open champions Laura Siegemund and Vera Zvonareva stood in Dabrowski and Routliffe’s way, but their impressive form carried over into the championship match. The two capped off their first Grand Slam as a team with back-to-back straight-set wins, securing the biggest title of each of their careers within just one month of joining forces.
Dabrowski and Routliffe made their maiden WTA 1000 final the following week in Guadalajara and, the next month, they won another title together at the Zhengzhou WTA 500. Their late-season successes clinched them a spot in the WTA Finals, where the No. 7 seeds didn’t drop a set in the group stage, reaching the semifinals.
But Dabrowski and Routliffe had eyes on some silverware at the year-end championships after losing out in the semis, as they looked to return to the competition in their first full season together in 2024. In the first half of the year, the Canadian-Kiwi duo kicked off the Slam season with a trip to the Australian Open semis and later reached their second WTA 1000 final in Miami.
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In June, after missing the whole clay swing while undergoing breast cancer treatment, Dabrowski made her triumphant return to the court. The Ottawan, reunited with Routliffe, won her first event back on tour in Nottingham, bringing a grass-court title to Wimbledon.
Dabrowski and Routliffe were the highest they had ever been seeded at a major at No. 2, taking down two other seeds on their way to a second Grand Slam final as a team. The pair lost in two tiebreaks to Katerina Siniakova and Townsend.
On the North American hard-court swing, Dabrowski and Routliffe returned to the event where their partnership began – at the National Bank Open in August – this time as the top seeds. The two reached the final in Toronto, but their first WTA 1000 title together still eluded them.
After they were unable to defend their US Open crown, Dabrowski and Routliffe’s last chance at big-event glory in 2024 came at the WTA Finals in Riyadh. The second seeds continued to cruise through the group stage, once again going 3-0, but on this occasion, they overcame Nicole Melichar-Martinez and Ellen Perez in the semifinals to book their place in the title match.
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In the final, it was a chance at Wimbledon revenge against Siniakova and Townsend. The Canadian and Kiwi took a tight opener then sealed their first WTA Finals triumph in straight sets.
In 2025, the search for a maiden WTA 1000 title as a team was still on. The two had to wait patiently but then the North American hard-court swing came around again. In Cincinnati, Dabrowski and Routliffe were forced to come back from a set down twice en route to the final. There, the duo was untroubled, beating Alexandra Panova and Hanyu Guo in straight sets to get their hands on a WTA 1000 trophy.
However, the Cincinnati champions weren’t done there. With four more wins on American soil in Flushing Meadows, Dabrowski and Routliffe were back in the US Open semifinals and made a statement as their final Grand Slam run together was nearing its finale.
The 2023 champions defeated second-seeds Jasmine Paolini and Sara Errani in straight sets to clinch a place in their third major final. The pair battled familiar foes Siniakova and Townsend, taking down the top seeds to secure their second US Open title in three years.
Dabrowski and Routliffe’s time together at the Slams ended the way it began back in 2023 but, despite their partnership on the court coming to a close, their connection off it continues.
“A rollercoaster of emotion no one could have predicted,” Dabrowski wrote on Instagram. “A business partnership comes to its end, and a friendship remains.”
Feature Photo: Martin Sidorjak
