New Zealand's Erin Routliffe and Canada's Gabriela Dabrowski celebrate with the trophy following the US Open tennis tournament women's doubles final match, 2023. Photo: AFP
New Zealand tennis player Erin Routliffe and her Canadian partner Gabriela Dabrowski have qualified for the season ending WTA Finals.
Routliffe will be the first player from New Zealand to compete in the WTA Finals.
Routliffe and Dabrowski confirmed their place after winning their second title over the weekend.
The 28-year-old now has five WTA doubles titles to her name and this week reached a career high world doubles ranking of 13.
Routliffe and Dabrowski only started playing together back in August and their first tournament win was a Grand Slam - the US Open in New York last month.
"I think what's working really well for us is just how well we communicate with each other," Routliffe said.
"There's a lot of conversations and tough conversations you have to have with your partner in order to get the best version of them and obviously get the best version of you and I think that that's probably the best thing we do," she said.
"We're very open and honest with each other about everything, no matter what, even when we're under pressure in matches. And I think that's what's really helped us even though we haven't played together that long."
They lifted their second trophy at the Zhengzhou Open WTA 500 event in China.
Their win in Zhengzhou catapulted them from tenth to sixth in the doubles standings and they will now travel to Cancun in Mexico for the season-ending championships.
New Zealand's Erin Routliffe and Canada's Gabriela Dabrowski in action at the 2023 US Open. Photo: AFP
Routliffe and Dabrowski have won 13 of their last 16 matches. That includes their win at the US Open in September, as well as their runners-up finish at the Guadalajara Open WTA 1000 event in Mexico a few weeks ago.
They will now rest for a few days before heading to Cancun in Mexico, where they will have about five days of training and preparation ahead of the WTA Finals, which get underway on 29 October.
"We're both really excited and really pumped for it," Routliffe said.
She said it has been "a crazy year so far" with a lot of ups and downs.
"The beginning of the year was fine and then in the middle I was really struggling, not winning many matches. I felt like I was playing really well. I feel like I kept telling people, if I was asked, that I was playing well. I was just trying to back myself to keep going and I surrounded myself with people that really believed in me.
"And so I think that paid off, obviously partnering with Gaby has been amazing and I'm so thankful to her for taking a chance on me and believing in me as well, and I'm glad that we are playing really well together and I'm excited for more because I think we can do a lot of really good things together in the future."
- RNZ