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ROLAND GARROS – When you’re one of the top doubles teams in the world, and you’re looking forward to playing your first Roland Garros together, it’s the worst when an injury pops up to ruin it all.
But that’s what happened to Canadian Gabriela Dabrowski and Cana-Kiwi Erin Routliffe this year.
Dabrowski had been managing a rib issue. But after winning their quarterfinal match at the Strasbourg tournament the week before Roland Garros, it crossed that line to being too painful to play.
And so that meant not only did they pull out of Strasbourg, they withdrew from Roland Garros as well.
(That will come as a relief to her fans – many of whom were speculating it might be a recurrence of the breast cancer she was treated for almost exactly a year ago).
“It’s frustrating for sure. I think it’s just the name of the game. In doubles, you always know that there’s a chance that your partner can get injured,” Routliffe said last week. “We were excited. We’d obviously never played the French Open together, so that was frustrating.”
“It’s tough. I feel like every time we get momentum this year, it’s just … take a hit. Honestly, what can you do?”
Dabrowski was due to see a specialist this week, Routliffe said. So until there’s news one way or the other, the Cana-Kiwi can’t really have any kind of plan – short-term, or otherwise.
She will play the first grass-court tournament at Queen’s Club this week with Lyudmyla Kichenok of Ukraine.
But before that, she had to scramble to find a last-minute partner in Paris.
It’s not a matter of just finding some other player to team up with.
After the duo pulled out of Strasbourg and Roland Garros the Thursday before the start of the tournament, Routliffe had until Saturday at noon to “re-pair” with another partner
The restriction is that the team’s combined ranking still has to be inside the cut for the doubles draw, which this year was 153.
Luckily for Routliffe, singles and doubles rankings are both valid. And given she’s ranked No. 3 in the world in doubles, “all” she basically had to do was find a player ranked No. 150 or better in either discipline who wasn’t already paired up.
And who, ideally, was ready to play the backhand side.
Of course, it wasn’t going to just be a random selection; Routliffe would certainly want to find someone she had a shot at making a run with.
“Basically, I made a list of singles players that weren’t playing doubles and just went down the list,” she said.
She didn’t have to get far down – like, two or three players, she said.
“I was really happy when Vika (Victoria Azarenka) said she wanted to play. Obviously, she’s amazing. If you told freaking 12-year-old Erin that she’d be playing the French Open with Vika Azarenka, she’d have been over the moon.”
Routliffe said she watched Azarenka play “when she was a kid”, all the time. (Given she’s 30, she did not share that with Azarenka, who is now 36).
“I would tell her, though. She’s really nice. She can take it. I’d be like, ‘Damn, I watched you all the time!” I was thinking that when I was warming up this morning with her. I was like, ‘You can’t really make this up.’ I mean, it was fun.”
“I respect her so much. Obviously, growing up watching her play, she’s (former) world No. 1, incredible tennis player. I like that she always competes no matter what. Singles, doubles – no matter what. No matter what.” Routliffe said. “I think she’s iconic. She has this aura about her. And also her being on the player council, she’s a big advocate for us, for women – and to make the sport better in every single way. She’s a boss-ass bitch, to be honest. A baller.”
Don’t you just love how Routliffe just comes right out and tells it like it is?
Here’s what their debut looked like.
Routliffe and Dabrowski were slated to be the No. 2 seeds, at the bottom of the women’s doubles draw.
Their absence meant that the Italian pair of Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini moved into that No. 2 seed slot. (Which might have changed the entire course of the tournament, but all that was still on the horizon at this point).
So, in an unfortunate bit of draw luck, Routliffe and Azarenka ended drawing … Errani and Paolini in the first round. “How funny is that? It’s classic. It’s a bad draw,” Routliffe said.
The highly experienced Italians beat Routliffe and Azarenka 6-2, 6-3. It’s score that reflect parts of the match, but not all of it.
“I’m not saying we could have won today. I think it’s just maybe if we had one extra match, played them the second round – I think playing them first right away when they’re so confident, so hot, is tough,” Routliffe said of the team that had just won the Italian Open in their homeland. “Vika was fun to play with. I think probably she had to enjoy it, too. We tried to have a little bit more fun at the end then we did at the beginning.”
Routliffe has played the Italians a few times now.
They don’t look like much. Errani’s serve is so slow that Paolini has given up even being at the net when she’s serving. She just stands at the baseline with her and they work the point from there.
And yet, they win. All the time.
Dabrowski and Routliffe have had some success – they defeated them 11-9 in the match tiebreak at the WTA Finals last November. And they narrowly lost to them in the final in Rome last year – 10-8 in the match tiebreak.
And you can see by observing them some of the things they do that make them a tough team.
But here’s the inside tea from someone who actually knows what it’s like to be on the opposite of the court.
“I think they make everyone feel pretty uncomfortable. They obviously love playing on these courts. This is absolutely ideal conditions for them as well – like windy, cold, heavy,” Routliffe said.
“I’ll try to describe it. It’s as if they tease you into thinking that you should hit a bigger shot. I think that’s what it is. They put it in a spot where it’s both of the people’s balls, and so you’re both hesitating. So with them, you really have to have a solid game plan and really commit to it.
“And I think that’s really hard when you’re playing with a partner that you don’t normally play with. So I think that that is where it’s really tough.”
It was, in retrospect, no shame to lose to the eventual champions.
Errani and Paolini won their first Grand Slam doubles title as a team on Sunday, against the surprise finalists Aleksandra Krunic and Anna Danilina.
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