Doubles star Gabriela Dabrowski made historical past on a couple of event this season to cement her place within the Canadian tennis report books.
She teamed with Erin Routliffe to grow to be the primary Canadian duo to win a Grand Slam girls’s doubles title final summer time 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 pressure for the Canadian aspect on the girls’s staff tennis occasion in Spain. Canada swept its technique to the weekend playoffs earlier than beating Italy 2-0 within the remaining.
Fernandez, a Montreal native, gained 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 significant title within the girls’s doubles occasion on the U.S. Open.
Dabrowski, from Ottawa, was prepared if the best-of-three remaining went the space, however the doubles match wasn’t required after Stakusic and Fernandez gained 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 event — beforehand often called the Federation Cup — in 1963. The nation’s greatest earlier end result was a semifinal look in 1988.
The Canadian males, in the meantime, have been unable to duplicate their run to the Davis Cup title in 2022. Canada earned an computerized berth on this 12 months’s Last 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 checklist for subsequent month’s Australian Open however Andreescu will skip the primary main of the season as a consequence of 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 teen who seems primed to interrupt out subsequent season.
Fernandez is at the moment No. 35 on the WTA Tour checklist whereas Andreescu has slid to No. 95.
WATCH l Dabrowski, companion Routliffe clinch U.S. Open:
Ottawa’s Gabriela Dabrowski and her companion 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 event collectively.
In wheelchair tennis, ninth-ranked Rob Shaw is the lone Canadian within the high 10. He gained silver within the males’s quad class on the Parapan Am Video games.
Dabrowski, in the meantime, returned to high type after battling again ache and a few doubles companion adjustments early within the season.
At present ranked eighth on the earth, she performed just a few tournaments with Routliffe — who grew up outdoors of Toronto — earlier than they gained 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 actually 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.