Kiwi tennis player Erin Routliffe. Photo / Photosport
Kiwi tennis player Erin Routliffe. Photo / Photosport
Erin Routliffe’s remarkable deeds at the US Open are a reward for perseverance, persistence and passion.
Her progression to the women’s double finals has capped a remarkable fortnight at Flushing Meadows, even if it hasn’t captured the attention it normally would here, due to the unfriendly time zones and theplethora of other sport.
But it’s been quite something. Whatever happens in the decider (5am Monday, NZT) - with the New Zealander and her Canadian partner Gaby Dabrowski up against the experienced duo of Laura Siegemund (Germany) and Russian Vera Zvonareva - Routliffe has already made history.
She has joined a select bunch of Kiwis to reach a Grand Slam final. That’s headed by the incomparable Antony Wilding, who dominated the sport in the years preceding World War I, along with Onny Parun, who reached the 1973 Australian Open singles final, then took the doubles title at Roland Garros the following year. Chris Lewis’ magical singles run at 1983 Wimbledon remains the greatest achievement of the modern era, while Judy Connor enjoyed doubles success in Melbourne in 1979.
Michael Venus has been a trailblazer in recent years, with French Open doubles title and a Wimbledon doubles final appearance, along with three mixed doubles finals at the Grand Slam level.
The 28-year-Routliffe now belongs in that category, though it has been a long, hard road. She has been toiling on the circuit for a decade, for many years stuck on the lower reaches of the tour. Her career prize winnings of US$561,874 ($954,760) might sound impressive, but not when it is divided over so many years, along with the gargantuan expenses of being a touring professional.
There have been tough times and a constant carousel of doubles partners as Routliffe has fought her way up the ladder. There were moments - some not even that long ago - where she considered doing something else. But she has persisted, driven by her love for the sport.
Erin Routliffe. Photo / Getty Images
That has paid off in recent years. She won her first WTA doubles title (Palermo) in 2021, reaching two other finals in the same year, including a WTA 500 event in the Czech Republic.
Last year was the breakthrough. She made four doubles finals - two at WTA 500 level - and took out the Washington Open with Jessica Pegula. Even more impressively, Routliffe and her then partner Alicja Rosolska went to the last eight at Wimbledon, a few weeks after reaching the third round at the French Open.
Those results took her ranking inside the top 30, after she had been outside the top 150 at the end of 2020. New York has been the fruiting of the vine, with Routliffe and Dabrowski improving steadily across the tournament.
Their most eye-catching display came in the quarter-finals, against the sixth-seeded combination of Taylor Townsend and Leylah Fernandez, who had reached the 2023 French Open final together.
Townsend, with her power and swinging serve, can be a difficult opponent, and had reached two Grand Slam finals and a brace of semifinals, while Fernandez is a former US Open singles finalist and a gun within the team format.
The match was on a packed Louis Armstrong arena, with a parochial crowd behind Townsend and her Canadian partner. After squandering a 4-1 lead in the deciding third set, Routliffe and Dabrowski were down 7-2 in the tiebreak, before engineering a brave comeback to take the match 2-6, 6-3, 7-6 (8).
Saturday’s semifinal was more straightforward but no less impressive, as they beat the eighth-seeded duo of Hsieh Su-Wei (Taiwan) and Wang Xinyu (China) 6-1, 7-6 (4).
“This is a goal I’ve set for myself for a few years, when I started playing pro, and I’ve been working really hard and practising a lot more than I have in the past,” Routliffe said after the semifinal win. “I’ve surrounded myself with people who believe in me, and I think I have the game to be one of the best doubles players in the world.”
Michael Burgess has been a sports journalist since 2005, winning several national awards and covering Olympics, Fifa World Cups, Grand Slam tennis and America’s Cup campaigns. A football aficionado, Burgess will never forget the noise that greeted Rory Fallon’s goal against Bahrain in Wellington in 2009.
