New partner for Erin Routliffe raises expectations at US Open

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Erin Routliffe and Alexa Guarachi decided to split after Wimbledon and the Kiwi has been able to have better results with Gaby Dabrowski.

Erin Routliffe could be in the best position of her career to strike gold at the US Open, thanks to her new doubles partner Gaby Dabrowski.

Routliffe, who is New Zealand’s top women’s doubles player, has recently formed a new combination with Dabrowski and last week in Cleveland they demonstrated their potential by beating the No. 1 doubles team in the world, Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova, who are both from the Czech Republic.

Dabrowski is from Canada, the country where the Auckland born Routliffe grew up and for the first time in Routliffe’s career she has been able to secure a regular partner who’s up there with the very best doubles players in the world.

The 31-year-old Dabrowski has a world ranking of 19, which enabled the two of them to be the 16th seeds in New York, Routliffe is at 54 in the world rankings.

Dabrowski has been ranked as high as No 4 and she was a finalist at Wimbledon in 2019 and has won two grand slams in mixed doubles.

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Michael Venus is the only other New Zealander playing at this year’s US Open.

It means Routliffe now has a partner who could enable her to go very deep into the second week of a grand slam, potentially further than her quarterfinal appearance at Wimbledon last year.

“She’s had an amazing amount of success and I can feel how good of a doubles player she is and how much experience she’s had with different partners at every tournament on different surfaces,” the 28-year-old Routliffe said.

“I think I can learn a lot from her and I’m trying to make the most of every single practice and match we have together.

“I’m also hoping she can learn a bit from me as well. Not specific things, but I hope we can bounce off each other.

"We’re being upfront and honest with each other and we’re trying to start our partnership like that.

"Every partnership you have, it’s different to the last one and it’s really hard to compare them. But I’m just trying to look forward and learn from her, to get better every day.

“With someone like her, who’s super successful and super passionate and us both having the same goal, I think it’s going to go well.”

This is Routliffe’s fourth appearance at the US Open. In 2015 she competed under the Canadian flag.

Each of the four grand slams have a different feel about them and the US Open is like the city it’s held in; loud, relentless and chaotic, but also captivating.

”The US Open is one of the most hectic slams for players,” Routliffe said.

“There is a ton of fans here, it’s New York City, so even when you go back to your hotel or Airbnb, it’s still go, go, go.

“They call it the city that never sleeps and that’s the truest thing ever.

“There are a lot of night matches, so I’m glad we got night matches in Montreal and Cincinnati, where we played crazy late.

“I love how we got that experience because it’s crazy different to playing during the day.

“I really like the US Open. I have my sister coming and one of my coaches, Bruce (Lipka) is coming too,” she added.

“It will be really nice to have him there with Gaby, for our new partnership.

“I’m really excited. Things are really hectic, there’s so much going on all the time, that you have to take time to relax and try to focus on that.

“But I really think we can beat anyone in the world, so I’m excited to have that opportunity.”

In the first round Routliffe and Dabrowski will play against Lauren Davis from the USA and the Czech Republic’s Anastasia Detiuc.

Meanwhile, Michael Venus and Jamie Murray, who are the No 12 seeds will play Gonzalo Escobar from Ecuador and the Kazakhstan’s Aleksandr Nedovyesov in the first round of the men’s doubles.

The doubles will start at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Centre on Wednesday (Thursday NZ time).