New Zealand doubles star Erin Routliffe says she and Canadian partner Gaby Dabrowski are \u201cexcited to get going\u201d as they return to Riyadh to defend their title at the WTA Finals from this weekend.<\/p>\n
Routliffe and Dabrowski, who also won this year\u2019s US Open, head into the eight-team season-ending championship as one of the favourites, having lifted the trophy in Saudi Arabia last year.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s good. Obviously, anywhere you come back where you\u2019ve won the tournament before, it\u2019s always really great memories,\u201d Routliffe said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cImmediately when we got here, we remembered winning last year, so that\u2019s really exciting. We\u2019re excited to get going and get playing again.\u201d<\/p>\n
The world\u2019s top pairs are divided into two round-robin groups, with the top two advancing to the semifinals. Routliffe said the format rewards teams who can stay composed and aggressive under pressure, which is something they were able to do in Riyadh last year.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think just to stick together in the tough moments and to be super aggressive,\u201d she said. \u201cWith the no-ads and 10-pointers, it\u2019s really important to lock in for those big moments and support each other in whatever way we can.<\/p>\n
\u201cLast year, we didn\u2019t have any regrets at the end of it. Even if we hadn\u2019t won that much, we would have been aggressive and play on our terms. That\u2019s probably what we learned from last year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since claiming the US Open title in September, the second Grand Slam victory of her career, Routliffe\u2019s schedule has been a mix of rest, practice, and a few tune-up events. She partnered Dabrowski in Beijing and briefly teamed up with another Canadian, Leylah Fernandez, in Wuhan when Dabrowski missed that week for a friend\u2019s wedding.<\/p>\n
\u201cGaby had to miss Wuhan because she had a friend\u2019s wedding, and then I missed Japan because I had my friend\u2019s wedding,\u201d Routliffe said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re at that stage where we\u2019re sometimes going to miss some tournaments for stuff like that, especially when we\u2019ve already qualified [for the Finals].<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was good to play in Beijing and get the match there (with Dabrowski). I was lucky to be able to find Leylah to play with in Wuhan \u2013 that was a good experience. And I\u2019ve just been doing the same old thing, practicing, getting ready for Riyadh.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although her US Open celebrations were brief, Routliffe said the short break before the Finals helped her reset, unlike after their 2023 triumph in New York.<\/p>\n
\u201cLast time we played basically right away, we had like five days off,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis time, I actually started practicing pretty soon after, and went to Beijing two weeks after. So to be honest, it was pretty quick, but that\u2019s how our lives are with these longer seasons.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe couple of weeks before Riyadh were super nice, not travelling as much and practicing. I\u2019m definitely feeling fresh here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Routliffe and Dabrowski\u2019s group in Riyadh includes top teams such as American Taylor Townsend and Czech star Katerina Siniakova, but the Kiwi says she\u2019s relishing the challenge.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a privilege to play against the seven other best teams of the whole year,\u201d she said. \u201cNo matter what happens, we\u2019re grateful to be here, it\u2019s an accumulation of everything over the year.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs far as the groups go, they\u2019re both really tough, and we\u2019ve never really worried too much about them. We\u2019ll play on our terms as much as we can and enjoy every moment, because normally that\u2019s when we have the most success.\u201d<\/p>\n
Once the WTA Finals conclude, Routliffe will fly straight to Poland to represent New Zealand in the Billie Jean King Cup play-offs, against Poland and Romania.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know how much time I\u2019ll take off, but the Billie Jean King Cup is right after,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI go from Riyadh to Poland, and then the season is over, so I\u2019ll take some time off.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI haven\u2019t figured out exactly how much, I\u2019ll try to figure it out after Riyadh. But I\u2019m looking forward to having a couple weeks of some R and R and then getting back to it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New Zealand doubles star Erin Routliffe says she and Canadian partner Gaby Dabrowski are \u201cexcited to get going\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":252530,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,85,747],"class_list":["post-252529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252529","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=252529"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252529\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/252530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=252529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=252529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=252529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}