Erin Routliffe has made it back to back doubles titles at the Cincinnati Open.<\/p>\n
Last year the Kiwi won the WTA 1000 tournament with Asia Muhammad, while this year she repeated that feat with her regular partner, Gaby Dabrowski.<\/p>\n
This is the first time Routliffe and Dabrowski have won a WTA 1000 title together and is their second title together this year.<\/p>\n
In the final Routliffe and Dabrowski defeated Guo Hanyu from China and Russia\u2019s Alexandra Panova 6-4 6-3, in a match that lasted one hour, 20 minutes.<\/p>\n
The Kiwi\/Canadian team got the only break of serve in the opening set of the final and in the second set they broke their opponents three times.<\/p>\n
It was Routliffe and Dabrowski at their best in this match. They were able to work together on the points, knowing what each of them would do during the rallies.<\/p>\n
They also played to their strengths, with Routliffe serving superbly and Dabrowski dominant at the net.<\/p>\n
At the trophy presentation, Dabrowski gave an emotional speech comparing where she was this time last year, when dealing with breast cancer.<\/p>\n
\u201cExactly one year ago, I was going through radiation treatment at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville,\u201d Dabrowski said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cErin’s best friend, Asia Muhammed, stepped in and played this tournament, and they took the title, which was really fun to watch them do from afar.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I feel very fortunate to be able to compete this week and fill some very big shoes, Asia’s shoes. So it’s been super special to compete here alongside Erin.\u201d<\/p>\n
Routliffe paid tribute to all of those who had supported her and Dabrowski.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur team, of course, everyone here and everyone watching back at home or wherever they are in the world, we have so many people behind us,\u201d Routliffe said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“It really does take a village to make us who we are and to give us the success that we have.\u201d<\/p>\n
Routliffe then spoke to her partner.:\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cGaby, we have had a rough year, and we’ve stuck together. I think this title means a lot to both of us,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Routliffe and Dabrowski next head to Monterrey, Mexico for one more tournament before the US Open begins on August 24.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Lulu Sun has also been in action in Monterrey, advancing from qualifying into the main draw.<\/p>\n
The Kiwi defeated France\u2019s Diane Parry 6-4 7-6(5) in the final round of qualifying on Sunday (Monday NZ time), setting up a rematch with Czech player Linda Noskova.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The two met in last year\u2019s Monterrey final, which was Sun\u2019s first appearance in a WTA final, with Noskova winning 7-6(6) 6-4.<\/p>\n
Sun looked sharp against Parry, breaking in the opening game and saving both break points she faced in the second set.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In the tiebreak, she gained the decisive minibreak at 4-3 and sealed victory when Parry netted a forehand.<\/p>\n
In a quirk of the draw, last year\u2019s final is a first round match up in 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Erin Routliffe has made it back to back doubles titles at the Cincinnati Open. Last year the Kiwi…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":77863,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,82,593],"class_list":{"0":"post-77862","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77862"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77862\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77863"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}