AUSTRALIAN OPEN

January 15, 2025

Gabriela Dabrowski

Erin Routliffe

Press Conference

DABROWSKI-ROUTLIFFE/Collins-Krawczyk

6-4, 4-6, 3-6

THE MODERATOR: Gabby and Erin, a big fight for you guys today. Your thoughts on your performance, if each of you could start real quick.

ERIN ROUTLIFFE: Yeah, I think we knew it was going to be a really tough match. Never played them together before, but I played them separately.

GABRIEL DABROWSKI: Yeah.

ERIN ROUTLIFFE: I think, oh, yeah, you have too.

Yeah, they're really tough. Obviously we played Des a lot last year. We haven't played D. Collins in doubles a lot, but she's an amazing player. When she's hot, she's one of the best in the world.

I think, yeah, we knew we were going to have to stick together and play our game and try and just get through the tough moments. And yeah, we were pretty aggressive when we needed to be. Yeah, we're really happy to play again.

GABRIELA DABROWSKI: Yeah, did we play them at Wimbledon? I think I played them at Wimbledon a few years ago.

ERIN ROUTLIFFE: Yeah, and then I played them the next round, I think.

GABRIELA DABROWSKI: It's definitely been a few years since we played them. But as Erin mentioned, we knew the quality of tennis that they can play. So it was definitely a really tough first round to have to raise our level that high straight off the bat at a Grand Slam and obviously our first tournament of the year as well. Not easy.

But proud of how we came through. We battled. We found solutions. And yeah, really happy to have won that one because it would have been easy to have not (smiling).

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. As you sit down, you have to find those solutions. Who says what and when? Which of you led the charge on that front and where did it sort of come from?

ERIN ROUTLIFFE: I think we kind of go back and forth with who leads in tough moments. I think, I don't know, today probably I think Gabby. I was struggling for the first hour of that match pretty hard. I did not play a lot of tennis over the offseason because I've been injured. So just getting that confidence of being on the court again.

I started hitting ten days ago, something like that. I've been easily frustrated. You know, when you are, like, really confident in something and then you don't get to do it, and you're missing the reps.

I definitely leaned on Gabby a lot. So I would say you today. But I think we bopped back and forth.

GABRIELA DABROWSKI: I think it's back and forth. Sometimes Erin makes a joke, and that's one way to lighten the mood. It actually is a leadership skill even if it's maybe not intentional at the time. But it definitely -- no, but it's a positive.

Q. What are her jokes like? Are they any good?

ERIN ROUTLIFFE: Girl (laughing).

GABRIELA DABROWSKI: A bunch of random stuff. Yeah, today was probably like the crowd from an adjacent court. We were, like, Oh, it sounds like Davis Cup over there or Fed Cup or whatever.

ERIN ROUTLIFFE: The court behind us, they were going after it.

GABRIELA DABROWSKI: Sometimes you just also have to let out any frustration that you feel because it's better to just say it out loud than keep it bottled up.

ERIN ROUTLIFFE: I know what it was. I know what it was. I ripped a 'come on' after Gabby hit a winner. I said, I'll celebrate for you, don't worry, because she was quiet.

GABRIELA DABROWSKI: I said, You do that, I'm tired. Stuff like that.

Q. Love-3 down in the third, what sort of happened to start turning it around? Did you start to play better or feel that they tapered off?

ERIN ROUTLIFFE: No. I think maybe they didn't hit as many first serves that they had wanted. I don't think Des hit that many first serves that game.

GABRIELA DABROWSKI: That was the 3-0 Des served? I think it slowed down a lot. She gave us looks.

ERIN ROUTLIFFE: Didn't miss a lot of returns. So we made them play a lot of balls.

GABRIELA DABROWSKI: The first game was really close. We got unlucky. We had game point. It kind of felt like it was 3-0, but it's not like they had blown through us to get to 3-0, in a sense.

ERIN ROUTLIFFE: Yeah.

GABRIELA DABROWSKI: I think we knew also I felt like getting that breaking Des would help kind of with the momentum shift back a little bit in our favor, even though at that point it would only be 3-1. It felt like maybe we were a game ahead of that. I don't know. It was just a feeling sometimes that you have on the court.

ERIN ROUTLIFFE: But, yeah, I don't think there was anything that different.

GABRIELA DABROWSKI: No. Maybe if we watch it back we can tell you (laughing).

Q. Do you feel when it gets to 3-All, though, that you can feel the frustrations on their side that they have got really close to looking at the No. 2 seeds and feel it slipping away?

ERIN ROUTLIFFE: Like can we feel their energy? A little, but I don't think I felt it today that much. I was more focused on what we were doing.

GABRIELA DABROWSKI: I felt it when Danielle hit her racquet.

ERIN ROUTLIFFE: Oh, yeah, fair.

GABRIELA DABROWSKI: She was frustrated.

ERIN ROUTLIFFE: Fair.

GABRIELA DABROWSKI: We knew that, like, she would come out firing. But always when a singles player is playing doubles, sometimes you're not sure how much effort they're going to spend. They're obviously going to try, but you don't know if they're going to fight when it gets really close if they're still in the singles draw.

Sometimes there's a little bit of a feeling in the air of, like, if you could just push past a certain point in a match, maybe they'll mentally fade because their focus might be elsewhere type thing.

But Danielle, I mean, she brought so much fire today.

ERIN ROUTLIFFE: She was really good.

GABRIELA DABROWSKI: Yeah. It made it a big challenge for us, especially because we haven't seen her play doubles in a long time. Obviously we played Des a lot, so we kind of knew what Des was going to bring. But Danielle was, yeah, on her game. She was great.

So I think when I saw her get frustrated, I was, like, Okay, she cares actually a lot or it feels like she's caring a lot. But sometimes that can lead to overplaying as well. So, yeah.

Q. How much do you draw on your experiences together when you are down two breaks in the third that you know it's not over and you know that both of you together, you can fight your way back from here?

ERIN ROUTLIFFE: I think a lot.

GABRIELA DABROWSKI: Yeah.

ERIN ROUTLIFFE: I think we've been in worse positions in matches, I think. So we always remember that it's never over.

I think today the first match of the season, we're not really thinking that much. We're trying to win, but we're not thinking that much. We're thinking about the process and how we're going to get there.

It didn't feel like we were down and out. I guess a double break is a pretty big lead from them. But definitely helps that we've been in worse positions before, and we've gotten through it because, yeah, it's really nice to have that feeling of the past success.

GABRIELA DABROWSKI: Yeah. And the evidence being positive.

Q. Gabby, I know it's an incredibly personal story and really brave of you to post on Instagram a few weeks ago and really sort of open up. I would imagine it's resonated with a lot of people. I know there were players commenting on the post and members of the public too. How have you found the response, and I guess was it what you expected?

GABRIELA DABROWSKI: I honestly wasn't sure what to expect. I think the reaction has been really positive so far. My intention is to just get the message out there that early detection is super important and to not hesitate if you're not sure what something is. Like, definitely push for a follow-up because it's better to get something taken care of sooner rather than later. Especially when it comes to something like cancer.

Also, just show, you know, I guess what's possible as well from pushing your body through stuff. Obviously different people have different journeys with illness. So by no means am I saying that the way that I did something is the right decision for someone else, but it just shows one option maybe.

Down the line I'm sure I'll share more details about things that I ate and how I managed my sleep and how I managed symptoms on endocrine therapy and which, you know, experts in the medical field you can trust, those types of things, that maybe lots of people don't know.

When I feel like I have all my ducks in a row and I start putting that out there, hopefully people can find that helpful for themselves or for a loved one if they're going through something similar.

But, yeah, overall the response has been really lovely, and I have felt very supported. Yeah, it's been great. Thanks.

Q. I don't want this to sound as cliche as it maybe will. Just when you put it there about what is possible from the human body, I would imagine that there were times where you look around here and even traveling all this way probably seemed impossible at times.

GABRIELA DABROWSKI: Yeah, yeah, for sure. I mean, especially in the beginning I didn't know what the diagnosis would be exactly, what the prognosis would be. I wasn't sure how long I would need to be out. There were a lot of questions.

But, I mean, I think meeting some other survivors early on that had been through worse than me or were going to go -- or had been through probably the worst side of cancer and had come out the other side and ran triathlons or marathons and you are, like, Whoa, okay.

So meeting people that had accomplished those kinds of physical feats really reassured me that this was something that I was going to be able to get through.

Yeah, I mean, that was really helpful. I just hope that I could be kind of maybe that person for someone else one day to let them know that they're going to be okay and that they can still achieve all the things they want to achieve and that, yes, it's a process and it can be a long journey for many, but there is like a light at the end of the tunnel.

I know in some cases there's not a light at the end of the tunnel, but knowing that you are going to be okay and that your family is going to be okay and people around you, you know, just get to spend the best time with you for whatever you have left as well because I know that sometimes you don't make it through.

So I feel like I'm in a very privileged position to be making it through. So I just want to offer support to others who may need it.