Canada’s Gabriela Dabrowski and partner Erin Routliffe advance to NBO doubles quarterfinals

The winners of last year’s US Open will face Edmonton’s Mia Kupres and Richmond Hill, Ontario’s Ariana Arseneault in the quarterfinals of the Canadian Tennis Championship. The wild-card duo qualified Thursday without using a racket due to an opponent’s injury.

That means at least one Canadian team will be in the doubles semifinals after all of the country’s players were eliminated this week, both here at Sobeys Stadium and during the men’s tournament in Montreal.

Leylah Fernandez of Laval, Quebec, who surprisingly finished last in both groups in Thursday’s singles match, and her younger sister Bianca are also in the quarterfinals.

Stearns and Linette, who came back from a 4-1 first-set deficit, defeated Dabrowski and Routliffe, the top favorites in Toronto, earlier this year at the China Open.

“I’m proud of how we fought through it,” Dabrowski said of Friday’s game in windy conditions in Toronto’s north end. “It wasn’t easy.”

Dabrowski and Montreal’s Felix Auger-Aliassime won the country’s first tennis medal in 24 years at the Paris Olympics, finishing third in the mixed doubles on clay at Roland Garros.

“I’m not sure I’ve had enough time to reflect, honestly,” Dabrowski said. “I feel like I’ve thrown myself into a different event and I want to play well here, so I’ve put a different pressure on myself.”

Canada’s only other tennis medal at the Olympics came in 2000, when Daniel Nestor and Sebastien Lareau defeated Australians Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde in the men’s doubles final at the Sydney Olympics.

“The honor of a lifetime to represent at the Olympics,” Dabrowski said. “It’s such an amazing experience. To win a medal is incredible. And to do it with someone like Felix is ​​really special.

“He’s such a nice person, he works very hard.”

Dabrowski, 32, and her former partner Luisa Stefani of Brazil won the 2021 NBO doubles event in Montreal, the first time a Canadian woman has topped the women’s tournament since 1969.

Dabrowski and Routliffe, who was born in New Zealand to Canadian parents and represented Canada until her marriage changed in 2017, have been partners since 2023.

“The work we’ve done together on the practice field, the work we do as scouts,” Dabrowski said when asked what makes her tandem with the 29-year-old work. “(We) try to be as coachable as possible … it’s a matter of managing a business partnership, a relationship. It’s not easy, especially when we’ve been associated for so long now, but there are pros and cons to that.

“The advantage is that we can get through days like today more easily than a team that hasn’t been playing together for that long.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published August 9, 2024.

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Joshua Clipperton, The Canadian Press