Gabriela Dabrowski falls short to win her maiden women's slam title

Gabriela Dabrowski is, without a doubt, one of the best, if she's not the best, doubles player in Canada in the Open era. Although Dabrowski is a well-known doubles player for many years, you may be surprised to learn that she never reached the grand slam final of the women's doubles tournament before today. Indeed, her best performance was a semi-finals appearance at Wimbledon in 2018, which was also her first appearance in the final four at a Grand Slam tournament. Her journey, with Chinese partner Yifan Xu, at the 2019 Wimbledon kicked off with two easy victories with 6-1, 6-3 and 6-2, 6-1 scores against pairs formed by Tunisia's Ons Jabeur and Hungary's Fanny Stollar, as well as Ukrainian Kateryna Kozlova and Australian Arina Rodionova. If her road, with her partner, the Croatian Mate Pavic, had abruptly stopped in the third round in mixed doubles, despite being the third favorites of the competition, after a marathon of more than three hours, it was the opposite on ladies' side. The 27-year-old Ontarian and 30-year-old Chinese eliminated Xu's countrywomen Yingying Duan and Saisai Zheng 7-5, 6-3. It was even easier in the quarter-finals against Americans Danielle Collins and Bethanie Mattek-Sands, who was eliminated in just 64 minutes by the score of 6-1, 6-3. Arrived in the final four, the opposition became very fierce while Dabrowski and Xu faced the Czechs Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova, who were not only the second favorites at this Wimbledon, but also reigning champions and doubles champions at the French Open in 2018. The fourth seeds sent their opponents home with a 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 victory.

The win gave Dabrowski access to her maiden Grand Slam final in women's doubles. It was not her first career Grand Slam final, however, as she already had four under her belt, all in mixed doubles. She won the titles at Roland-Garros in 2017, along with the Indian Rohan Bopanna, and the Australian Open in 2018, with Mate Pavic. She also lost at the finals at Roland Garros in 2017 and 2018, both times in partnership with Pavic. Unfortunately, the first Grand Slam title in women's doubles will have to wait for the Ottawa native, while Czech Barbora Strycova and her partner, Taiwan's Su-Wei Hsieh, got the last word with a score of 6-2, 6- 4.

This unfinished run should allow Dabrowski to return to the top 10 in the doubles' ranking, an achievement she reached for the first time in her career not so long ago, on February 19, 2018, following her title, with Latvia's Jelena Ostapenko, during the tournament in Doha, Qatar.

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