Editor's note: This week, we looked at the road each of the eight singles players and eight doubles teams took to qualify for this year's GNP Seguros WTA Finals Cancun in Mexico.
Singles
Monday: No.1 Sabalenka | No.2 Swiatek
Tuesday: No.3 Gauff | No.4 Rybakina
Wednesday: No.5 Pegula | No.6 Jabeur
Thursday: No. 7 Vondrousova | No.8 Sakkari
Doubles
Monday: No.1 Gauff and Pegula | No.2 Hunter and Mertens
Tuesday: No.3 Aoyama and Shibahara | No.4 Krejcikova and Siniakova
Wednesday: No.5 Krawczyk and Schuurs | No.6 Siegemund and Zvonareva
Thursday: No.7 Dabrowski and Routliffe | No.8 Melichar-Martinez and Perez
Season at a glance
If Laura Siegemund and Vera Zvonareva's last-minute title was the most dramatic qualification for the WTA Finals, Gabriela Dabrowski and Erin Routliffe's was arguably the least likely. That was certainly the case as of August when, with only three months of the season remaining, the two joined forces for the first time.
At that point, both players' seasons had been significantly derailed. Dabrowski had started 2023 with Giuliana Olmos, with whom she had qualified for the 2022 WTA Finals, but after a 2-2 record in their first two tournaments rejoined her 2021 partner, Luisa Stefani. The reunion lasted five tournaments, during which they notched only five wins, and was over by May.
Routliffe, meanwhile, played with seven different players over the first seven months of the season -- and compiled a mere 3-13 record at tour level with her most regular partner, Alexa Guarachi.
But just a month after teaming up, Dabrowski and Routliffe made history. At the US Open, Dabrowski accomplished something she had been unable to do with any of her sundry previous partners -- lift a Grand Slam women's doubles trophy, becoming the first Canadian to be crowned champion in that discipline in the Open Era.
Routliffe, who had never been ranked inside the Top 20 before, became New Zealand's first major champion since the 1979 Australian Open, when Judy Connor-Chaloner won the doubles title alongside Dianne Evers.
Dabrowski and Routliffe put a cherry on top of the regular season with a second title in Zhengzhou -- a result that proved crucial to their qualification for Cancun. For the second year running, Dabrowski's partner at the WTA Finals is the first representative of her country to qualify for the tournament. This time, she'll be hoping that Routliffe can help her get out of the round-robin stage for the first time.
By the numbers
2023 win-loss record as a team: 16-6
Titles won as a team: US Open, Zhengzhou (500)
Grand Slam record: Australian Open DNP, Roland Garros DNP, Wimbledon DNP, US Open W
Dabrowski ranking: 7
Routliffe ranking: 12
Dabrowski previous WTA Finals appearances: 2017 QF (with Xu), 2018 QF (with Xu), 2019 RR (with Xu), 2022 RR (with Olmos)
Routliffe previous WTA Finals appearances: None
