On the heels of the Paris Olympics, the 2024 National Bank Open in Toronto is soon coming to a close with the finals taking place on Monday night.
The women’s doubles final will feature a matchup between familiar opponents and two of the best doubles teams of 2024: No. 1 seeds Gaby Dabrowski and Erin Routliffe, Canada’s hometown favorites, squaring off against the All-American duo of Caroline Dolehide and Desirae Krawczyk, the No. 3 seeds in Toronto this week.
It will mark a rematch of the Wimbledon semi-finals earlier this summer, where the Canadian-Kiwi duo of Dabrowski and Routliffe dispatched the Americans 6-4, 6-3 in a straightforward victory.
The singles field features an All-American matchup between No. 3 Jessica Pegula, the NBO defending champion, against her younger compatriot, 22-year-old Amanda Anisimova. The occasion marks a huge opportunity for both Americans who are each on the comeback trail this season, Pegula from an injury and Anisimova after taking an extended leave from the tour for mental health reasons.
With many Canadians in doubles action and some breaking doubles partnership news confirmed by a top American team, doubles played a prominent role in tournament headlines throughout the week. As we prepare for the highly anticipated finals matchups tonight, here are five doubles takeaways from covering the 2024 NBO in Toronto this year.
1. Fernandez Sisters Headline a Strong Canadian Doubles Front
It may have been a disappointing showing for the Canadian stars in singles, but a strong showing in doubles was a welcome consolation for Canadian tennis fans and gave doubles a much more visible platform than it typically receives.
Three of the eight quarterfinalist doubles teams featured Canadian partners:
- No. 1 Gaby Dabrowski & Erin Routliffe (Dabrowski is Canadian and Routliffe represents New Zealand but currently lives in Canada and has lived most of her life there)
- Leylah Fernandez & Bianca Fernandez (Canadian wildcard recipients)
- Ariana Arseneault & Mia Kupres (Canadian wildcard recipients)
While Dabrowski and Routliffe were the most impressive team in terms of X’s and O’s, the Fernandez sisters’ improbable run to the semifinals was arguably the best doubles story of the week. En route to the semi-finals, they knocked off a trio of established doubles teams including No. 5 seeds Demi Schuurs and Luisa Stefani, Catherine Harrison and Ashlyn Krueger, and a pair of multi-grand slam champions Kristina Mladenovic and Zhang Shuai.
The win was particularly meaningful for younger sister, Bianca, a rising sophomore at UCLA who rose 720 ranking spots from No. 911 to No. 191 as a result of their semifinals performance. The young Canadian wildcard team of Ariana Arseneault and Mia Kupres also raised eyebrows, upsetting No. 6 seeds Ellen Perez and Ulrikke Eikeri in the first round before pushing top seeds Dabrowski/Routliffe to three sets in the quarterfinals.
Many thanks to our friends and the familiar voices of Canadian tennis, Mike McIntyre and Ben Lewis of Match Point Canada, for covering all of the doubles action on their daily podcast episodes throughout the week.
2. Coco Gauff, Jessica Pegula Announce End of Doubles Partnership
In the biggest doubles news of the week, Jess Pegula confirmed that she and Coco Gauff will not be playing doubles together for the rest of the season. This didn’t come as a huge surprise as both players previously mentioned re-evaluating their partnership and doubles priorities following the Paris Olympics.
Gauff and Pegula’s Olympics campaign came to a disappointing hault when the top seeds crashed out in the second round against the big-hitting Czech team of Karolina Muchova and Linda Noskova, 2-6, 6-4, 10-5. The Americans are concluding a successful partnership dating back to the 2022 season. At the top of their impressive accomplishments is five WTA titles (two WTA 1000s), finalists at Roland Garros in 2022, and qualifying for back-to-back WTA Finals appearances in 2022-2023.
In the end, the partnership ran out of steam with limited match play this year leading up to the Olympics due to Pegula’s injuries and Gauff prioritizing singles. The Americans only competed in five tournaments together this year with a 6-5 record. When I asked Pegula in her press conference about doubles for the rest of the season, here’s what she had to say.
I’m not sure about my doubles plans moving forward. I know Coco isn’t interested in playing so she can prioritize singles, so I’ll probably take it easy on doubles for the rest of the year. We’ll see – I’ll plan on playing whenever I’m up for it and mainly focus on singles the rest of the year.
3. Sofia Kenin, Bethanie Mattek-Sands Eye WTA Finals Qualification
Other Americans in action at the National Bank Open included 7th seeds Sofia Kenin and Bethanie Mattek-Sands, who finished as semi-finalists. They gutted out two three-set wins in their first two rounds before coming up short in an All-American matchup against No. 3 Caroline Dolehide and Desirae Krawczyk, falling 6-2, 3-6, 10-7.
A semi-finals performance in Toronto puts them in strong contention for the WTA Finals. The Americans have enjoyed a stellar 2024 season thus far with two titles in Abu Dabi (WTA 500) and the Miami Open (WTA 1000). Both players are now ranked inside the top 30 and committed to playing together for the rest of the season.
As the current No. 8 team in the WTA Finals Race, they are building consistently each week and have their sights set on qualifying for Saudi Arabia.
“I’m at my career high doubles ranking, which feels nice. The WTA Finals is something I would love to compete in, and the better we keep playing, the better our chances feel.” – Sofia Kenin
“It’s super cool to have the championships in Saudi for the first time this year. For one, I’d love to visit to see what’s going on over there. The year-end championships is always a goal at the finish line where teams get rewarded for doing well the whole year. We’ve been building momentum tournament to tournament, so it’s definitely out there on the horizon. There’s a lot of tennis left this year, but we’re planning to play the next few U.S. hardcourt events and then in Asia as well.” – Bethanie Mattek-Sands
4. Behind the Scenes: Doubles Partnership Scramble
A common question that fans and media often ask doubles players is how the partner selection process works. It turns out that it’s a fairly casual process, according to some of the players we spoke with this week.
Pegula teamed up with Gugu Olmos for the first time thanks to the match-making skills of their mutual friend, Desirae Krawczyk, as I learned in Pegula’s press conference. Both are accomplished doubles players in their own right, so it was no surprise that the first-time pair made a successful run to the quarterfinals, beating a few solid teams along the way before falling to Dolehide and Krawczyk 7-6, 7-6.
“It was fun playing with Gugu,” said Pegula. “Our mutual friend Des Krawczyk actually set us up. Des wasn’t sure if she was going to play with Caroline, so she had initially asked me if I wanted to play. But then she ended up playing with Caroline and told me Gugu was looking for a partner. Gugu texted me and I said sure. Choosing partners is pretty casual honestly. I thought we played really well together this week. Sometimes it takes a while to gel with a new partner, but we clicked pretty fast and beat a few really good teams.”
Another player who was on the partnership hunt this week was Ellen Perez. The Aussie lefty is a top 10 WTA doubles player who regularly plays with Nicole Melichar-Martinez. With her partner out with an injury the next few weeks, this week, Perez stayed on-site after her first-round exit to get practice reps in and search for a partner to play with in Cincinnati.
We enjoyed catching up with Ellen in the stands while watching the Olmos-Pegula vs. Dolehide-Krawczyk doubles match, and it was interesting hearing her talk through potential partner options on the Cincinnati Open entry list and the pros/cons of playing with singles players vs. full-time doubles specialists.
Many players value a doubles partner who either complements their game style or is someone who they get along well with off the court (or ideally both). Ellen will be competing with Harriet Dart in doubles this week in Cincinnati.
5. Aldila Sutjiadi: One of Pro Doubles’ Many Untold Stories
The best part about covering tournaments is getting to speak with new doubles players at each event and learning more about their stories. At the NBO this year, Aldila Sutjiadi was a shining example of this.
Despite losing in the first round, “Dila” stuck around a few extra days to practice before heading to Cincinnati and was very generous with her time. Will and I had an enjoyable 30-minute conversation on the tournament grounds with Dila for the Doubles Only Podcast.
Coming off a career-best season in 2023, Dila spent many years on the ITF Circuit before cracking the top 30 last year. During this time, she and partner Miyu Kato won two WTA 250 titles, advanced to the Round of 16 in each of the four majors, and finished runner-up at the WTA Elite Trophy in Zhuhai.
The Indonesian native shared about her journey growing up in Indonesia and being recruited to play college tennis for several schools. Eventually, she chose the University of Kentucky and spoke highly of her time living in Lexington and competing in the SEC against fellow WTA pro doubles players like Erin Routliffe (University of Alabama) and Ellen Perez (UGA).
From Kentucky bourbon and horses to her ideal mixed doubles and women’s doubles partners, we covered it a wide range of topics with Dila on the podcast.
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