Kiwi Erin Routliffe and Canadian partner Gabriela Dabrowski have claimed arguably the biggest win of their careers, taking out the end-of-year WTA Finals doubles crown with a 7-5 6-3 result over American Taylor Townsend and Czech Katerina Siniakova at Riyadh.
The outcome was a measure of revenge for the Wimbledon Grand Slam final, where Townsend and Siniakova prevailed in two tiebreak sets. Siniakova subsequently leapfrogged Routliffe for the world No.1 doubles ranking.
"I think they're an amazing team and they're amazing from basically every position in the court," said Routliffe. "I think when it comes down to those big moments, the big thing for us was we just wanted to go and take it, and they weren't gonna give it to us.
"We tried to kind of pep talk ourselves to go for our shots and be more aggressive in those big moments. I think that's probably what the difference maker was.
"We stayed aggressive, we stayed committed and we supported each other in those big moments. With the scoring system, it's hard — you have to do that or else you won't win.
"You really have no choice, so I think we did that well today."
Routliffe and Dabrowski have won a US Open Grand Slam title in 2023, but the WTA Finals is limited to only the best eight teams each year. They were eliminated by American Nicole Melichar-Martinez and Aussie Ellen Perez in last year's semifinals, but reversed that result to reach this year's final.
In the opening set, Siniakova was 40-15 up, serving to force a tiebreak, but the NZ-Canadian combination — Routliffe was born in New Zealand, but grew up in Canada — won the next three points to take the set.
Routliffe and Dabrowski broke early in the second set, but their rivals levelled at 3-3. They then swept the last three games for victory.
"We've been through a lot this year, and we've always stuck by each other and really committed to each other and supported each other. I think this is kind of an accumulation of the entire year and it means a lot."
Victory sees Routliffe and Dabrowski split US$870,000 (NZ$1.5m) prizemoney, more than double their purse from their US Open triumph.
Meanwhile, ASB Classic champion Coco Gauff ended the year as she began, overcoming Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen 3-6 6-4 7-6(2) for the singles crown.
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