Erin_Routliffe

Erin Routliffe

Erin Routliffe

Canadian-New Zealand tennis player


Erin Hope Routliffe (born 11 April 1995) is a New Zealand professional tennis player who previously represented Canada.[1] She reached a career-high doubles ranking of world No. 5 on 18 March 2024. Routliffe is a two-time NCAA doubles champion with Maya Jansen for the 2014 and 2015 seasons.[2] Partnered with Gabriela Dabrowski, Routliffe won her first Grand Slam doubles title at the 2023 US Open, her best result at a major event. She became the first New Zealand woman to win the tournament and only the second one to win a major title in the Open Era, after Judy Connor won the women's doubles title at the 1979 Australian Open.[3]

Quick Facts Country (sports), Residence ...

She studied at the University of Alabama, and she was part of its tennis team from September 2013 until her graduation in May 2017, majoring in public relations.

She had a career-high junior rank of No. 17 achieved on 21 January 2013.

Her win in the 2018 Hardee's Pro Classic in Dothan, Alabama allowed her to break into the top 200 in the doubles rankings for the first time, while her win two weeks later in Charleston, South Carolina pushed her into the top 150. Her runner-up finish in Washington in 2018, took her into the top 100. Her first WTA doubles title came three years later at the 32nd Palermo Ladies Open in July 2021.

Early life

Routliffe was born in New Zealand while her parents, Robert Routliffe and Catherine MacLennan, were on an around-the-world sailing adventure. They stayed there four years before returning to Canada.[4] She has two sisters, Tara and Tess, the latter being an international para-swimmer. Both were also born in Auckland. She made the move to Montreal in September 2011 to train at the National Training Centre and stayed there until 2013.

Tennis career

2010–2011

In October 2010, Routliffe won the doubles title at the G4 in Burlington, Ontario.[5] She won her first junior singles title at the same tournament a year later.[6] In October 2011, she reached the quarterfinals in both singles and doubles at the $50k Saguenay Challenger, with a win over Alizé Lim in the second round.[7] She reached her second straight $50k doubles quarterfinal in Toronto the next week.[8]

2012

In April, Routliffe won the singles and doubles titles at the G2 in Cap-d'Ail.[9] Later that month she made the doubles final of the G1 in Beaulieu-sur-Mer.[10] She lost in the first round in singles at the junior French Open and Wimbledon, but reached the quarterfinals in doubles at Wimbledon. In August, she was awarded a wildcard in the qualifying draw at the Rogers Cup and made it to the second round.[11] She made the doubles final of the G1 in Repentigny, Quebec in September.[12] She was defeated in the first round in singles of the junior US Open, but reached the quarterfinals in doubles. She won the doubles title at the GB1 in Tulsa, Oklahoma with Carol Zhao, defeating Charlotte Petrick and Denise Starr in the final.[13] Routliffe also reached two doubles quarterfinals in October: at the $50k Challengers in Saguenay and Toronto.[14]

2013

Routliffe lost in the first round in singles of the junior Australian Open, but made the quarterfinals in doubles for her third straight Grand Slam. In February, she reached her first professional doubles final at the $25k tournament in Launceston, Tasmania.[15] She was defeated in the first round in singles and the second round in doubles at the junior French Open. At the beginning of July, Routliffe made it to the semifinals in doubles at the $50k Cooper Challenger.[16] In August, she won the gold medal in singles at the Canada Summer Games in Sherbrooke.[17]

2014

In July, Routliffe and partner Carol Zhao made it to the semifinals at the $25k Challenger de Gatineau.[18] At the $25k in Granby a week later, she and Zhao reached the third doubles final of her career. They were supposed to face Hiroko Kuwata and Riko Sawayanagi for the title, but had to withdraw because of an injury.[19]

2015

In July, Routliffe reached the doubles final in Granby (now a $50k event) for the second straight year, this time with Laura Robson, but they were defeated in straight sets by Australians Jessica Moore and Storm Sanders.[20] The following month, Routliffe and partner Maya Jansen won the US Open National Playoffs in doubles, and were awarded a wildcard for the main draw.[21] They were defeated in the first round by Raquel Kops-Jones and Abigail Spears.[22]

2016

Routliffe advanced to her first professional singles final in July 2016, at the $25k in Winnipeg, where she was defeated by fellow qualifier Francesca Di Lorenzo in straight sets.[23] In early October, she won her first professional doubles title, partnering Andie Daniell, at Charleston, South Carolina.[24]

2017

In June, the ITF agreed to allow Routliffe to change her representational nationality to the country of her birth. Routliffe played her first Fed Cup ties for New Zealand against Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan in July, dropping only one game in her winning debut over Guljan Muhammetkuliyeva.[1] In October, this time with Di Lorenzo as her partner, she made it to the doubles final at the $60k Saguenay Challenger, Canada, but they had to withdraw following an injury to Di Lorenzo.[25] The next week at a $60k in Toronto, she won her second doubles title, defeating Ysaline Bonaventure and Victoria Rodríguez, partnering Alexa Guarachi.[26] In December, she reached the doubles final with Maya Jansen at the $15k in Solapur, India.[27]

2018

In January, with compatriot Jade Lewis, Routliffe won her third and fourth doubles titles, in consecutive weeks at ITF tournaments in Sharm El Sheikh.[28][29] A week later, she collected her third successive title at the same venue, this time in singles over Nadja Gilchrist.[30]

Routliffe then joined the New Zealand team in Bahrain for their Fed Cup Asia/Oceania Group II playoffs. Rested for the first day's tie against Lebanon, Routliffe had her first match the following day when New Zealand met top seeds Uzbekistan. Playing for the second time against its top player Sabina Sharipova (she had played her in the 2017 Fed Cup tie as well), Routliffe lost 7–5, 6–1. Losing all three rubbers, New Zealand nevertheless finished second in the group, and moved through to the 5th-8th place play-offs against Pakistan the following day, where Routliffe beat Ushna Sohail, 6–3, 6–1.

In Irapuato, Mexico, Routliffe won her third ITF doubles title for the year when she teamed with Alexa Guarachi again.[31] They followed that with a loss in the semifinals at Jackson, Mississippi but won another title together a week later in Pelham, Alabama,[32] and won their third title in four weeksin Dothan. The latter event, being an $80k tournament, was the biggest win for both players.[33] They lost in the quarterfinals of the next tournament at the $80k-level in Charlottesville, Virginia but then won again in the last of the three events, at Charleston, South Carolina, where they beat Louisa Chirico and Allie Kiick.[34]

Routliffe then went to South Korea to start a series of tournaments in Asia. With a new partner in Victoria Rodríguez, she lost in the semifinals of the first event in Incheon. Moving on to Thailand, the pair took out the title at the first tournament they played in Hua Hin,[35] and completed the tournament double by winning again a week later.[36] It was Routliffe's eighth doubles title for the year.

Routliffe and Guarachi qualified for Wimbledon. They lost to the eventual champions Barbora Krejčíková and Kateřina Siniaková in the first round of the main draw.

From there Routliffe returned to Canada, and she teamed again with Victoria Rodríguez for an ITF tournament in Gatineau, Quebec; they were beaten in their quarterfinal. Teaming again with Guarachi at the Washington Open, her very first WTA Tour event, they made the final, where they lost in straight sets to third seeds Han Xinyun and Darija Jurak. Returning to Canada with Guarachi, they were beaten by Carson Branstine and Rebecca Marino in the first round of an ITF tournament in Vancouver.

Routliffe headed to Cairns for the first of a series of ITF tournaments in Australia. Beaten in singles qualifying, she and first-time partner Astra Sharma were second seeds in the doubles. They lost to the top seeds Naiktha Bains and Xu Shilin in the final. In Darwin, she and Ellen Perez lost in the quarterfinals. She and Freya Christie reached the semifinals in Brisbane, and she won her ninth doubles title of the year in Toowoomba,[37] but lost with different partners in the first round in both Bendigo and Canberra.

Returning to the U.S. for her final WTA tournament of the season, Routliffe teamed again with Alexa Guarachi for a WTA 125 event in Houston, Texas; they were beaten in the first round by Maegan Manasse and Jessica Pegula. A month later, Routliffe was in Auckland where she lost in the semifinals of the New Zealand Championships to Valentina Ivanov,[38] but won the doubles as top seed with Paige Hourigan.[39]

2019

Given a wildcard into singles qualifying in Auckland, Routliffe was beaten in straight sets by Alexandra Panova. She and Guarachi lost to against Tímea Babos and Julia Görges in the doubles. They both went on to Hobart but took different partners, with Routliffe and Vera Lapko losing in the first round. Routliffe's next event was the Newport Beach Challenger in California, where she and Kristie Ahn lost in the first round to Manasse and Pegula.

She then had a series of tournaments where she lost in either the first or second round, until she came to defend her title in Irapuato. She and Anna Danilina lost in the semifinals, 7–6, 6–4 to the eventual champions Paige Hourigan and Australian Astra Sharma. She lost in the quarterfinals of her next two tournaments in Mexico, and then in the first round of the WTA tournament in Bogotá.

From there it was to the U.S. clay-court swing where, with Alexa Guarachi, they attempted to defend their title in Dothan, but were upset in the first round by Beatrice Gumulya and Abbie Myers. Routliffe teamed with Di Lorenzo to reach the quarterfinals in Charlottesville, and then with Allie Kiick to reach the semifinals at the next event in Charleston. At Bonita Springs, Guarachi and Routliffe won the tournament.

A semifinal loss in Spain was followed by a first-round exit at Surbiton and then a defeat in the quarterfinals at Nottingham to Monica Niculescu and Elena-Gabriela Ruse.

Routliffe then teamed with Madison Brengle for Wimbledon, losing in the first round to Han Xinyun and Oksana Kalashnikova. First or second round losses followed in Routliffe's next four tournaments. She teamed with Naomi Broady at the Vancouver Open to reach the final, losing to Nao Hibino and Miyu Kato.

2020

Routliffe was given wildcards for both the qualifying singles and doubles at the Auckland Open. She lost her first singles match to Sara Errani, and she and Allie Kiick lost to Caroline Garcia and Julia Görges in the first round of doubles.

Her next stop was an ITF tournament in Burnie. She had to retire from her second round singles in qualifying against Irina Ramialison. She entered the main draw as a lucky loser, and she was drawn to face Ramialison again. This time, she won in straight sets, but she lost her second round match to Maddison Inglis. She partnered Fanny Stollár in the doubles, and they lost their quarterfinal against Paige Hourigan and Destanee Aiava.

The ITF Circuit resumed in New Zealand after a break of seven years, the first women's event being in Hamilton. Routliffe and Emily Fanning won the doubles title.

Two tournaments in Perth followed, with Routliffe losing in the first round of singles in the first week, and in the final qualifying round in the second. She and Jaimee Fourlis were finalists in the first doubles event, but Routliffe had to default in the quarter-finals in the second week when her partner Arina Rodionova was injured playing singles. The latter had recovered by the time they moved to Mildura for the following week, and they made the final, losing to Tereza Mihalíková and Abbie Myers.

Playing doubles only, Routliffe resumed in the first tournament after the break because of COVID, the Lexington Challenger (with Robin Anderson), but lost in the first round, as she did in Prague (with Ingrid Neel), the tournament replacing the qualifying events for the US Open. She and Naomi Broady got to the quarterfinals of the İstanbul Cup, but she and Neel had another first-round defeat when they played in Cagnes-sur-Mer.

In Porto, she and Jana Fett were runners-up in a $25k tournament, and she equalled that result when she and Jamie Loeb were runners-up in Orlando, losing to Rasheeda McAdoo and Alycia Parks.

2021: US Open third round and first WTA Tour title in doubles

Routliffe began the year with ITF tournaments in Rome, Georgia, and Newport Beach, California. She won her first singles qualifying match in Rome, and lost in the doubles quarterfinals at both events. Her first WTA Tour match of the year was in Bogotá, where she and Viktoriya Tomova lost to Arantxa Rus and Tamara Zidanšek in the first round.

2022: Major and WTA 1000 quarterfinals, WTA title, top 30 debut

In January 2022, she reached the semifinals of the Adelaide International 2 with Alicja Rosolska. They reached the quarterfinals on the WTA 1000 level at the Qatar Ladies Open and the Miami Open. The pair also reached two more finals, at the WTA 500 St. Petersburg Ladies' Trophy and the Bad Homburg Open.

In her debut at the French Open, she reached the third round for the first time in her career with Rosolska. She teamed with Rosolska for the Wimbledon Championships[40] where she reached the quarterfinals seeded 11th for the first time at a major, becoming the first woman from New Zealand since Marina Erakovic to reach the last eight in 2011.[41][42] She made her top 30 debut at world No. 29 on 8 August 2022, following her title at the Washington Open with Jessica Pegula.

Returning to New Zealand for her first tournaments in nearly three years, she and Paige Hourigan won the doubles title at the inaugural $25k Eves Open in Papamoa.

2023: Singles WTA Tour debut & first win, major title, WTA Finals semifinal & top 15

She made her singles WTA Tour main-draw debut at home at Auckland as a wildcard. She fell in three sets to Elena-Gabriela Ruse in the first round.[43] Routliffe won her third doubles title partnering Aldila Sutjiadi at the 2023 ATX Open. They defeated top seeds Nicole Melichar-Martinez and Ellen Perez in three sets to claim the title. [44]

At the 2023 Internationaux de Strasbourg, she was awarded a lucky-loser place in the main draw after losing in straight sets to Angelina Gabueva in the last round of qualifying. In the main draw, she defeated Hsieh Su-wei, earning her first WTA Tour main-draw singles win, before withdrawing from tournament before her second-round match against Elina Svitolina.[45]

Ranked world No. 54 in doubles and seeded 16th as a pair partnering Gabriela Dabrowski at the US Open, Routliffe made her second doubles Grand Slam quarterfinal. In the quarterfinals the pair defeated sixth seeds Leylah Fernandez and Taylor Townsend in three sets to make the semifinals. There, they defeated Hsieh Su-wei who was on a 16 match major winning streak, having won both the 2023 French Open and the 2023 Wimbledon Championships, and Wang Xinyu to reach the final for the first time in Routliffe's career and second in Dabrowski's. In the final they took on former champions Laura Siegemund and Vera Zvonareva. They defeated them in straight sets to claim the US Open title, a first Grand Slam title for both players. With the win, Routliffe entered the top 20 for the first time in her career.[46]

At the Guadalajara Open the pair reached their first WTA 1000 final, where they lost to Storm Hunter and Elise Mertens. Their win in the Zhengzhou Open qualified them for the 2023 WTA Finals in Cancún, making her the first player from New Zealand to compete in the prestigious year-end event,[47] and took Routliffe to a new career-high ranking of world No. 13 on 16 October 2023 and to No. 12 a week later. With reaching the semifinals at the WTA Finals, Routliffe reached No. 11 on 6 November 2023.

2024: Top 10 debut

She reached the top 10 in the doubles rankings on 1 January 2024.

Grand Slam doubles performance timeline

Key
W  F  SF QF #R RR Q# DNQ A NH
(W) winner; (F) finalist; (SF) semifinalist; (QF) quarterfinalist; (#R) rounds 4, 3, 2, 1; (RR) round-robin stage; (Q#) qualification round; (DNQ) did not qualify; (A) absent; (NH) not held; (SR) strike rate (events won / competed); (W–L) win–loss record.
To avoid confusion and double counting, these charts are updated at the conclusion of a tournament or when the player's participation has ended.
More information Tournament, ... ...

Significant finals

Grand Slam tournaments

Doubles: 1 (1 title)

More information Result, Year ...

WTA 1000 tournaments

Doubles: 2 (2 runner-ups)

More information Result, Year ...

WTA Tour finals

Doubles: 13 (5 titles, 8 runner-ups)

More information Legend, Finals by surface ...
More information Result, W–L ...

WTA Challenger finals

Doubles: 2 (2 runners-up)

More information Result, W–L ...

ITF Circuit finals

Singles: 2 (1 title, 1 runner-up)

More information Legend, Finals by surface ...
More information Result, W–L ...

Doubles: 29 (16 titles, 13 runners-up)

More information Legend, Finals by surface ...
More information Result, W–L ...

Note 1: rain stopped play on 12 October with the score at 1–3 in the first set, and also prevented play the following day. The match was completed on 14 October.

Fed Cup/Billie Jean King Cup competitions

Singles (4–2)

More information Edition, Stage ...

Doubles (10–4)

More information Edition, Stage ...

Notes

  1. The WTA International tournaments were reclassified as WTA 250 tournaments in 2021.

References

  1. "Tennis player Erin Routliffe becomes Kiwi in time for Fed Cup". Stuff. 20 June 2017. Retrieved 20 June 2017.
  2. "Alabama Crimson Tide profile – Erin Routliffe". RollTide.com. Retrieved 21 September 2013.
  3. "Canada's Gabriela Dabrowski captures 1st women's doubles title at major event, prevailing at U.S. Open". CBC Sports. The Canadian Press. 10 September 2023. Retrieved 10 September 2023.
  4. "Canadian tennis headed in the right direction". TheRecord.com. Retrieved 28 January 2013.
  5. "Drawsheet: 2010 U18 ITF World Ranking Event 2". ITFTennis.com. Retrieved 28 January 2013.
  6. "Drawsheet: 2011 U18 ITF World Ranking Event 2". ITFTennis.com. Retrieved 28 January 2013.
  7. "Performance magistrale de Routliffe". Challenger Saguenay.com. Archived from the original on 7 April 2013. Retrieved 28 January 2013.
  8. "Drawsheet: $50,000 Toronto". ITFTennis.com. Retrieved 28 January 2013.
  9. "New career high for Routliffe". Open Court. Archived from the original on 11 April 2013. Retrieved 28 January 2013.
  10. "Girls' doubles main draw" (PDF). Tennis-Junior-Repentigny.com. Retrieved 28 January 2013.[permanent dead link]
  11. "Drawsheet: Pan American ITF Championships". ITFTennis.com. Retrieved 28 January 2013.
  12. "ITF junior profile – Erin Routliffe". ITFTennis.com. Retrieved 28 January 2013.
  13. "Drawsheet: $25,000 Launceston". ITFTennis.com. Retrieved 8 February 2013.
  14. "Doubles drawsheet" (PDF). CooperChallenger.com. Retrieved 5 July 2013.
  15. "Newsletter". TennisOntario.com. Archived from the original on 24 September 2013. Retrieved 24 September 2013.
  16. "Doubles main draw" (PDF). ChallengerBanqueNationale.com. Retrieved 18 July 2014.
  17. "Doubles main draw" (PDF). ChallengerBanqueNationale.com. Retrieved 19 July 2014.[permanent dead link]
  18. "Drawsheet: $50,000 Granby". ITFTennis.com. Retrieved 25 July 2015.
  19. "Maya Jansen and Erin Routliffe of Alabama Women's Tennis punch ticket to 2015 US Open". RollTide.com. Archived from the original on 29 August 2015. Retrieved 28 August 2015.
  20. "Drawsheet: $25,000 Winnipeg". ITFTennis.com. Retrieved 17 July 2016.
  21. "Drawsheet: $10,000 Charleston, SC". ITFTennis.com. Retrieved 12 October 2016.
  22. "Drawsheet: $60,000 Saguenay". ITFTennis.com. Retrieved 28 October 2017.
  23. "Drawsheet: $60,000 Toronto". ITFTennis.com. Retrieved 4 November 2017.
  24. "Drawsheet: $15,000 Solapur". ITFTennis.com. Retrieved 19 January 2018.
  25. "Drawsheet: $15,000 Sharm El Sheikh". ITFTennis.com. Retrieved 20 January 2018.
  26. "Drawsheet: $15,000 Sharm El Sheikh". ITFTennis.com. Retrieved 28 January 2018.
  27. "Drawsheet: $15,000 Sharm El Sheikh". ITFTennis.com. Retrieved 4 February 2018.
  28. "Drawsheet: $25,000 Irapuato". ITFTennis.com. Retrieved 22 April 2018.
  29. "Drawsheet: $25,000 Pelham". ITFTennis.com. Retrieved 22 April 2018.
  30. "Drawsheet: $80,000 Dothan". ITFTennis.com. Retrieved 23 April 2018.
  31. "Drawsheet: $80,000 Charleston". ITFTennis.com. Retrieved 7 May 2018.
  32. "Drawsheet: $25,000 Hua Hin 3". ITFTennis.com. Retrieved 7 June 2018.
  33. "Drawsheet: $25,000 Hua Hin 4". ITFTennis.com. Retrieved 13 June 2018.
  34. "Drawsheet: $25,000 Toowoomba". ITFTennis.com. Retrieved 25 December 2018.
  35. "2018 NZ Tennis Championships - Women's Singles". Tennis New Zealand. Retrieved 25 December 2018.
  36. "2018 NZ Tennis Championships - Women's Doubles". Tennis New Zealand. Retrieved 25 December 2018.

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