MUBADALA DC OPEN

August 1, 2026

Erin Routliffe

Aldila Sutjiadi

Press Conference

ROUTLIFFE-SUTJIADI/Klepac-Ninomiya

6-4, 6-1

THE MODERATOR: Congrats to you both on your title win here in D.C. Just your thoughts on the match today and your week here in D.C. as a whole.

ERIN ROUTLIFFE: Yeah, I love playing in D.C. We're really happy to get the title today. You know, it was our first week together in a while, so we were just really focused on playing the kind of tennis that we want to play and making teams feel uncomfortable.

So I think we did a good job of that. We're just really excited to be able to keep on going.

ALDILA SUTJIADI: Yeah, I'm definitely very happy to be back playing with Erin again after three and a half years. Yeah, I'm looking forward to play with her more in the hard-court swing and the Asian swings.

Yeah, we definitely will have more fun (smiling).

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. You'll be playing I think the rest of the season or if that's the plan. I'm just curious how did you decide you were going to reunite in the 2026 season after not playing in, I guess, three and a half years, as you said? For either of you.

ERIN ROUTLIFFE: Yeah, yeah, doubles is kind of like that. It just depends on who you are playing with, if you are set, and all that stuff. It worked out that we were both kind of looking at the same time, so that's how we're back together and going to continue the rest of the year together.

ALDILA SUTJIADI: Yeah, I think that timing also works for us really well. Yeah, I'm glad that we were able to find the time to play together and finally we make it happen.

Q. I saw you guys on the practice court after winning your semifinal. I think you went back out there. Just how much does that speak to your sort of I don't know if that's perfectionism or what that you won 6-1, 6-1 and still want to stay working on your craft?

ERIN ROUTLIFFE: Yeah, totally. Yeah, I mean, I think that's where the wins are is on the practice court. We try to push each other pretty well, and I think obviously it's our first week together as a team. We started well with that, and there were a few things that we wanted to work on.

Yeah, I think this year I've had a rough year, so I've had to practice a lot and just able to keep going through the losses and everything like that and keep working hard and trusting the process and believing.

I think Aldila also does a really good job of that for herself. For us to do it together, makes it a little bit stronger. Yeah, you've got to be a perfectionist to be really good, yeah (laughing).

Q. I wanted to ask, there's also been a lot of talk about doubles on the ATP side the last month or so. There have been some rules changes floated. It doesn't seem like the WTA is close to doing anything similar on their side, but I'm wondering what you make of this conversation around doubles and the place doubles has in the sport and the sort of the future of double as well, just from your own women's perspective.

ALDILA SUTJIADI: It's been, like, definitely a bit tough to hear about the new rules change maybe for the ATP, but hopefully they won't do that to us, because I feel like a lot of people love watching doubles.

We do make our living as doubles players, so that would be, like, helpful to have still the same rules for the doubles.

ERIN ROUTLIFFE: Yeah, I think we're all trying to do our best at marketing ourselves and marketing us as players and teams, as people. I think that's a big thing so that the fans -- you know, the fans are going to watch the people. I don't really think they're going to watch the forehands, backhands.

Obviously we entertain them on the court, and I think a lot of people do love watching doubles, because a lot of the fans actually do play doubles themselves. So that's something that I think a lot of people don't realize.

Yeah, we're trying to do or best to get ourselves out there and kind of let the fans get to know us, because I think that's probably the best way to do it.

Q. Just on that note, there's been a push on the ATP side this week with mic'ing up the doubles players during their matches and also just behind the scene, as well. I'm curious what you think about that and if that's something that you would consider doing yourselves?

ERIN ROUTLIFFE: Yeah, I actually thought the content was amazing, super interesting. I watched every video that they put out, and I thought it was really cool.

It was awesome to see the ways that the teams talked to each other and on the changeovers. You're kind of always wondering what they're talking about. I think a lot of fans always ask, like, What do you guys talk in changeovers? Half the time it's what we had for dinner last night, which I think is pretty funny.

Yeah, we're down to do it. I think if I was mic'd up, I would have to have one of those beep machines (laughing). Yeah, we're down to do it. We'd be happy to do it. So, yeah, if it's available to us in the future, I think that we'd probably be one of the first teams to be okay with it.

Q. You talked about how this is your first week together, and you are starting with the hard-court swing, and then you win a title your first week together. Does this put pressure on you to keep that going, or are you taking it sort of like, well, that was great, at least we know it works, and then you'll see where it goes from there?

ALDILA SUTJIADI: Yeah, I think we'll see it as a good start for us. Definitely not as a pressure because we know that every doubles teams are very good. So we're just going to do it, like, day by day, match by match.

Like, we're going to try our best to play good every time. Yeah, hopefully we'll get the same results for the next tournaments, too.

ERIN ROUTLIFFE: Yeah, there are so many really successful and good doubles teams out there, and you know that every single match you play, you're going to have to bring a good level. I think we're pretty focused on the process and trusting each other and just building our games.

So obviously a great start, but we have big goals together, so this is kind of like just the starting to get us going.

Q. I heard a funny story the other day from Diana about how her partnership with Venus came up very last-minute, it was very casual. I imagine you guys, it was a little more formal. I'm curious what the origin is of, quote, unquote, doubles regulars coming together? Is it over weeks that you talk? Is it a negotiation? Is it your team, your team? How does it come together? Not only that, but how does it go from it's not going to be a one- or two-week trial run; we're going to stick together here for a few months at least?

ERIN ROUTLIFFE: I think it's different for players, for teams, different for everyone, how much they want to talk before playing or if they just want to try it out and see how it goes. It depends I think a lot on the type of I think tennis and doubles you want to play.

I think doubles players that only play doubles tend to set for longer, because they know it takes time to make a successful team, yeah.

ALDILA SUTJIADI: Yeah, I think also different, like, if you are still playing singles or if you just play doubles only. Because some players with different rankings also have, like, different tournaments they want to play. So we also, like, maybe set that with the tournaments that, okay, we're going play 500, or we're going to play 250.

I think also it depends on, like, what do you want to work on as a team and what's your goals in the future. If you just want to, okay, I'm just going to play with you, like, few tournaments, okay, then that's okay.

But I think me and Erin, we both have the same goals. That's why we want to work for a longer period, and that's I think --

ERIN ROUTLIFFE: Yeah, a lot of time it's, like, your coaches working together, how you gel with that other person's coach, all that stuff. A lot of it is about the team around you, as well.

Q. How far back ago did you kind of commit to realize, all right, we're going to do this?

ERIN ROUTLIFFE: We talked like --

ALDILA SUTJIADI: Bad Homburg.

ERIN ROUTLIFFE: Yeah, like Wimbledon time or a little bit before. It turned out I was looking for someone for the rest of the year and then I kind of asked her. Then she said she also was looking. So then we're, look, Oh, that's good (laughing).

Q. One more for you, Erin. You won here a few years ago. At the time it was a 250. It's been upgraded. I'm just curious, you've been here a few times over the years. How have you seen the tournament kind of grow and evolve over those years?

ERIN ROUTLIFFE: Yeah, I think every year I come here there's definitely changes. I think they're trying to make it one of the best 500s. It just turned to a 500 a couple of years ago.

Yeah, I play every year. I really like it. I think there's a lot of tennis fans, which is the No. 1 thing. They all come out to watch. We like the food a lot. We like the hotel.

Yeah, it's a great event, and I think they're probably -- I think they have to make their locker rooms bigger if they want to compete with the other 500s for best 500, but it's a really, really great event, and I really love playing here.