Doubles star Gabriela Dabrowski made historical past on multiple event this season to cement her place within the Canadian tennis report books.
She teamed with Erin Routliffe to turn into the primary Canadian duo to win a Grand Slam girls’s doubles title final summer season on the U.S. Open.
Dabrowski capped her memorable marketing campaign a pair months later by serving to Canada win the Billie Jean King Cup for the primary time.
Leylah Fernandez was a drive for the Canadian aspect on the girls’s group tennis occasion in Spain. Canada swept its solution to the weekend playoffs earlier than beating Italy 2-0 within the ultimate.
Fernandez, a Montreal native, received all 5 of her matches whereas relative unknown Marina Stakusic of Mississauga, Ont., delivered three upset victories. Dabrowski teamed with Fernandez within the deciding semifinal match to push Canada previous Czechia.
Heidi el Tabakh captained a roster that additionally included Montreal native Eugenie Bouchard and Vancouver’s Rebecca Marino.
WATCH l Dabrowski speaks to CBC Sports activities about successful main title:
Gabriela Dabrowski speaks to CBC Sports activities about being the primary Canadian to win a serious title within the girls’s doubles occasion on the U.S. Open.
Dabrowski, from Ottawa, was prepared if the best-of-three ultimate went the space, however the doubles match wasn’t required after Stakusic and Fernandez received their singles matches in straight units.
“I simply really feel like we’re fairly good front-runners and we’re fairly good with carrying momentum in a short time,” Dabrowski mentioned.
Canada made its debut on the annual match — beforehand often called the Federation Cup — in 1963. The nation’s finest earlier outcome was a semifinal look in 1988.
The Canadian males, in the meantime, had been unable to duplicate their run to the Davis Cup title in 2022. Canada earned an computerized berth on this 12 months’s Remaining 8 as defending champion however crashed out within the first spherical to Finland.
It was a so-so 12 months on the singles entrance for Canadian gamers on tour.
Shapovalov (knee) is on the entry record for subsequent month’s Australian Open however Andreescu will skip the primary main of the season resulting from a lingering again subject.
“I am doing every little thing I can to get [healthy] as quick as potential however sadly these items take a while,” she mentioned. “However I am feeling very assured for 2024.”
Auger-Aliassime is the highest-ranked Canadian in singles at No. 29 on the ATP Tour. Shapovalov has tumbled to No. 109, some 30 positions forward of Gabriel Diallo, a six-foot-eight teenager who seems primed to interrupt out subsequent season.
Fernandez is at present No. 35 on the WTA Tour record whereas Andreescu has slid to No. 95.
WATCH l Dabrowski, associate Routliffe clinch U.S. Open:
Ottawa’s Gabriela Dabrowski and her associate Erin Routliffe, who represents New Zealand however previously represented Canada, beat Germany’s Laura Siegemund and Russia’s Vera Zvonareva 7-6(9), 6-3 to say their first girls’s doubles Grand Slam title in solely their fourth match collectively.
In wheelchair tennis, ninth-ranked Rob Shaw is the lone Canadian within the high 10. He received silver within the males’s quad class on the Parapan Am Video games.
Dabrowski, in the meantime, returned to high type after fighting again ache and a few doubles associate adjustments early within the season.
Presently ranked eighth on the earth, she performed a number of tournaments with Routliffe — who grew up exterior of Toronto — earlier than they received the ultimate Grand Slam of the season.
“I am simply actually pleased with how we have come collectively — our coaches name it unconditional help for each other — so I really feel actually grateful,” Dabrowski mentioned in a current interview.
Seeded sixteenth in New York, the duo edged Fernandez and American Taylor Townsend within the quarterfinals — successful 10-8 in a match tiebreak — en path to the title.
“I feel having that open line of communication enabled us to essentially play our greatest underneath a few of the most strain moments that I’ve ever skilled on a tennis courtroom,” Dabrowski mentioned.
They added one other title a month later in Zhengzhou, China and plan to play a full season collectively in 2024.
“Hopefully it is the start for us,” Routliffe mentioned.
Off the courtroom, Tennis Canada chief govt officer Michael Downey is retiring on the finish of the 12 months. Gavin Ziv, who has served because the group’s senior vice-president and chief tournaments officer, will take over the place.
