Canadian Doubles Steal the Show in Toronto

But the home crowd did find a bright spot in the women’s doubles draw: Three of the eight teams in the quarter-finals had at least one Canadian player, and by Saturday there was a guaranteed Canadian finalist.

Gabriela Dabrowski and Erin Routliffe

Last year, after losing in the first round of Wimbledon, Gabriela Dabrowski found herself at a crossroads: Did she want to play with another doubles specialist, or did she want to take a chance and play with a singles player who may end up prioritizing their own career over their doubles partnership?

In the end, the Ottawa-native decided to go with the former. She met with Erin Routliffe, a New Zealander who grew up in — and at one point represented — Canada, and found that their goals and values aligned.

“When I was playing and I was ranked lower, I had my eye on her as a partner. When you think of dream partners, she was definitely one of them. Then I slid in when she had a breakup,” Routliffe recalled with a laugh. “And then it ended up [being] good for both of us.”

While they both concede that their communication skills are still a work in progress, Dabrowski and Routliffe immediately found success as a team. Just weeks after making their debut at last year’s National Bank Open, Dabrowski and Routliffe captured their maiden Grand Slam women’s doubles title at the U.S. Open.

Last fall, they won the WTA 500 event in Zhengzhou, and reached the final of a 1000-level tournament in Guadalajara — impressive results that helped them qualify for the WTA Finals in Cancun. This year, they’ve won the WTA 250 event in Nottingham, were runners-up at Wimbledon, Miami, and Eastbourne, and reached the semifinals of the Australian Open and Dubai.

“I think coming to every practice and coming to every match with as much of an open mind as we can has definitely helped us,” Dabrowski said of the key to their success. “We’ve had some really amazing people around us guiding us through that as well. It’s really hard to do it on your own. Everything is a learning curve, really.”

“I think we’re an aggressive team, we like to play on our terms, make a lot of first serves, and we like to get a lot of first touches off the serve,” Routliffe added. “I would say that Gaby’s amazing at the net, and she’s really comfortable at the net. I think that I’m probably more comfortable at the baseline, but I’m trying to be more comfortable at the net. I think together we try and bully players, bully teams, just with our court positioning.”

Playing in their first hard-court tournament together since March, Dabrowski and Routliffe — who also felt the pressure of competing in Canada — admitted that they struggled to find their footing. They were pushed to match tiebreaks in their first two matches but seemed to improve as the week progressed. And while they fell in the final to No. 3 seeds Caroline Dolehide and Desirae Krawczyk, Dabrowski and Routliffe are feeling good as they head back to Flushing Meadows to defend their U.S. Open crown.

“A lot of it is just your energy and your vibe together and bringing out the best in each other in really tough moments,” Routliffe said. “Because with this [no-ad] scoring, it’s always about those crunch moments, those game-time points, and I think that we do a pretty good job of, when it comes down to it, supporting each other in those times.”

Leylah and Bianca Fernandez

Leylah and Bianca Fernandez have had two different trajectories in tennis — Leylah broke out as a teenager and reached the U.S. Open final in 2021, while Bianca decided to play college tennis at UCLA — but the two sisters will argue that they are really two halves of the same whole. In fact, they were taught, largely by their father and coach Jorge, to play the same way, despite the fact that Leylah is a lefty and Bianca a righty.

Two years after making their WTA 1000 debut as a team at the National Bank Open, the Fernandezes were awarded another wild card into the draw. Despite their relative inexperience, the sisters battled through, knocking out No. 5 seeds Demi Schurrs and Luisa Stefani, Catherine Harrison and Ashlyn Krueger, and Kristina Mladenovic and Zhang Shuai before falling to top seeds Dabrowski and Routliffe in the semis.

The Fernandezes “are very fiery, they take the ball really early, so it doesn’t lend a lot of time for opponents to make decisions on their own time. That makes it tricky to play against,” Dabrowski said after the semifinal clash. “I think we knew that going into [our match], so that helped us be ready for it. … But I think also probably this week they had a bit of a surprise factor, I don’t think too many people in the tournament would have seen Bianca play too many matches.”

The last time they played this event, the Fernandezes admitted that they didn’t relish as much of the experience as they’d hoped, in large part due to the pressure they had put on themselves. But this time, they made it a point to have fun together. “We’re honest with each other when we need it, and when we need to pump each other up we know what to say because we’ve been together since diapers,” Bianca said.

Read also: Leylah Annie Fernandez Denied First WTA 1000 Title in Cincinnati Doubles Final

“Since I haven’t seen her in so long, sharing the court with her, being in the same vicinity as her where we can just talk, talk smack about anything and everything, basically poking fun at each other, it’s fun,” Leylah said. “It’s something that I have missed throughout the year, something that I cherish. [These are] moments that I know will be part of my core memories.”

One of those core memories came midway through this year’s tournament. Just hours after Leylah lost to Krueger in the second round of singles, Leylah and Bianca faced off against Krueger and Harrison in front of a full house on Court 1. Leylah, admittedly still struggling with the disappointment of her earlier defeat, let Bianca take charge of that encounter. Not only did Bianca raise her own level, but she was also instrumental in giving her sister a much-needed “reality check” to pull out a thrilling three-set win that day.

“She’s very honest and very straightforward, so there are times where she knows what to tell me to snap me out of that little funk that I’m going through, or just tells me one or two key words to give me confidence for the next point,” Leylah said. “Because she knows me that well, she knows what to tell me, and that brings down my nerves.”

“I think we both have two different personalities, but balance each other out,” added Bianca. “Naturally, she’s always been a very positive, full-of-hope kid, so when I need the positivity, she’s there. Just like how she needed a bit of a reality check on a certain moment, I was there. I’ve always been, ‘No, these are the facts,’ and I’ve always been straightforward.”

The Fernandez sisters, who were given another wild card into this week’s WTA event in Cleveland, have already set their sights on their ultimate goal: qualifying for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles as a doubles team.

Ariana Arseneault and Mia Kupres

Ariana Arseneault and Mia Kupres have both hit major milestones this year. Arseneault, a Richmond Hill native and two-time All-American, recently wrapped up her successful NCAA career and graduated from Auburn University. Edmonton-native Kupres just finished her sophomore year at Texas A&M, where she was named an All-American in doubles and helped clinch the school’s first NCAA team title.

Together, the two friends have even made strides on the professional circuit. Earlier this summer, in their debut as a team, Arseneault and Kupres won the ITF W75+H event in Granby, Quebec, dropping just one set in the process. Their efforts were rewarded with a wild card to the doubles draw of the National Bank Open, where they reached the quarter-finals.

“I think we both have really good serves and are active at the net, so both having this skill immediately puts us at an advantage, and then both our energies match really well,” Arseneault said. “We hold each other accountable really well, which is really important in doubles, and being able to be responsive to holding each other accountable and not getting irritable, I think we do a really good job of that.”

After coming from a set down to knock out No. 6 seeds Ellen Perez and Ulrikke Eikeri and then receiving a walkover from the team of Anna Dalinina and Marie Bouzkova, Arseneault and Kupres went face-to-face with No. 1 seeds Dabrowski and Routliffe. Arseneault and Kupres certainly gave the recent Wimbledon finalists a run for their money, taking the opening set in front of an electric atmosphere on the Cashmere Grandstand Court. But in the end, the experience of the top seeds proved to be too much for the young Canadians, who grew up looking up to Dabrowski.

“She was always the image of a top doubles player in my mind, because she was the most well-known Canadian doubles player,” Kupres said of Dabrowski. “She’s played [Billie Jean King] Cup so many times, and just won a medal at the Olympics. I think that’s such a cool experience that we got to play against her, and that it was a competitive match. I think that’s something to be proud of.”

Looking to build on this momentum, Arseneault and Kupres confirmed they will join forces this week at the ITF W35 event in Saskatoon, and plan to play a few more events together in the coming months.

For Dabrowski, the most successful Canadian women’s doubles player of all time, the fact that her compatriots are already becoming just as competitive in doubles as they have been in singles is a clear sign that tennis associations must continue to invest more in the growth of doubles.

“I feel like many years ago that wouldn’t have been the choice of the federation to give college girls a wildcard into doubles, so I’m really glad that they made that decision,” Dabrowski said. “I think it sets a precedent for the future, that having a college career can mean that you have a lot of success during and afterwards in singles or in doubles.”

Feature Photo : Gyles Dias