NATIONAL BANK OPEN

August 2, 2026

Gabriela Dabrowski

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Gabriela, welcome to Toronto. Can you talk about your preparations for the tournament.

GABRIELA DABROWSKI: Last few weeks of prep? Well, some rest after the European swing and the U.K. swing. Then a few days in Ottawa visiting family, which was really nice. A couple days at my godparent's cottage, which was also lovely to do, which I haven't done in almost seven years. So, yeah, kind of a special time in between events for me.

Then coming here, yeah, I got here a few days ago, and I haven't been on site too much because I know once we get going I'll be here, you know, all day every day. Yeah, so I've been practicing, staying with some friends. They have a tennis court, which has been amazing, so I've been able to do that. And, yeah, today is just simple, it's gym, recovery, this, media day (laughing), so, yeah.

THE MODERATOR: Questions?

Q. Successful season so far, you and Luisa Stefani have really picked up where you left off a couple of years ago, so maybe you could talk a little bit about why that partnership has clicked right off the hop this year, and who are you going to be playing with, because I know she's nursing an injury right now.

GABRIELA DABROWSKI: Yeah, yeah, she's been, yeah, she's been actually playing through an elbow injury since about the end of March or so. That's why we missed Madrid, actually. So, yeah, kind of just trying to not compromise the rest of the season for her, which makes total sense. She would have loved to have been here and played, but, yeah, she misses it, but she's doing better, so she should be good for Cincy. Yeah, I think there are probably lots of reasons why the partnership works. One is we're good friends, so we have the ability to kind of call each other out on some stuff and not take it personally. I feel like that really helps us in some big moments that we've had this year. We also have really great people around us. We have an amazing team who are so dedicated to our development as players individually and as a team. I feel like they help guide us really well with all these weeks on tour during the year.

Also, I think we play kind of similar. I feel like we see the court in a similar way. I think we have jelled together, obviously in years past, but not for an entire season, so this is our first entire season together. I'm really glad that it's been working out so far, it's been really fun. Yeah, I'm really proud of what we've achieved.

Q. Who are you partnered with for the Toronto tournament?

GABRIELA DABROWSKI: For this tournament actually, yeah, I found someone yesterday, I've re-paired with Ekaterina Alexandrova. She someone that I've played against in doubles a bunch of times, but never with. I've always admired her game. She's one of those players that does consistently well year after year, singles and doubles, so, yeah, I'm really looking forward to it.

Q. It's approaching one year since you won the US Open for a second time. Just curious, when you look back to that run, what still stands out to you, beyond winning the trophy, one year later?

GABRIELA DABROWSKI: Yeah, it feels like it's come around quick, actually. It doesn't feel like a whole year almost has gone by. So I think that's kind of a strange feeling that it's like all of a sudden the US Open is around the corner. Obviously it's been, it was a wonderful experience to share with Erin and our team, and we have memories together forever. Yeah, super special time for both of us in our careers.

Obviously, like, hard court swing, a surface that we both play pretty well on. She just won DC last week, which was great to see. Yeah, so I think, you know, hopefully it will be kind of like a nice lead-up for both of us with our current respective partners into that event. I'm sure we'll, when we see each other here we'll joke around and just reminisce a little bit probably. But, yeah, it was a really beautiful thing that we achieved, and it was really cool to be able to win that event also twice and, yeah, it was great.

Q. Earlier this year I spoke with two of Canada's top up-and-coming doubles players, Cleeve Harper and Kayla Cross, and they had very high praise for you and rightfully so. How does it feel to be such a role model for these young doubles players and have them also be inspired by you to represent this country?

GABRIELA DABROWSKI: That's really nice of you to say. Yeah, I guess it's not really, I don't really receive that feedback like very often, so it's really nice to hear it, I guess. It's funny, Cleeve works with my coach as well, Dan Kiernan, so that's kind of nice that we have that connection there. Dan works really hard, so it's nice to see him be able to help another fellow Canadian. Yeah, I wish him, I wish both of them a lot of luck. Obviously Kayla is playing really well the last couple of weeks, taking the title in Granby I believe it was. So clearly their results are on the up and up. It's lovely to see, and lovely to see them doing well in doubles too and valuing that part of the tennis game. So just thank you for the nice words and, yeah, I wish them the best.

Q. In a situation like this week where you're having to pivot partners very last second, what are these days of preparation like when you're trying to get to know Ekaterina and her game and how you guys jell on kind of a tight schedule?

GABRIELA DABROWSKI: Oh, well I haven't seen her yet, so (laughing), honestly, I kind of, I kind of knew that this tournament would probably be too soon for Luisa, so I kind of planned in advance. I brought one of the coaches that I work with in Florida to Ottawa so I could continue kind of my process of development. I'm bringing a hitting partner that I work with in Florida as well, he arrives tonight. So my preparation's been a little bit more like making sure that I still get my side of the court taken care of and a little bit less about how I jell with Kat, because she's going to be focused on singles and I know she's going to do her best in doubles too, but doubles will not be really her priority at this event. So I knew that when Luisa wasn't ready that I could be partnering with a player who was not doubles focused for this tournament, and so I made my own adjustments to make sure that I'm ready no matter what. Also I'm using it almost as like another week to kind of gear up for the rest of the season and make sure that I'm healthy, make sure that I'm in a good head space. So, yeah, nothing yet with Kat, hopefully we get out there together before we play, but if not, we'll make it work and it will be fine anyway.

Q. Wanted to ask about the depth of Canadian tennis right now, in particular on the women's side. When you've got everybody healthy, what a squad to bring into Billie Jean King Cup competition, which you guys have already won before. But when you got a healthy Vicky, Leylah, Bianca, and yourself, what do you think this squad is going to be capable of doing over the next few years if you're at a hundred percent?

GABRIELA DABROWSKI: Yeah, well, I think obviously, yeah, if our top girls are healthy we're a very dangerous team. When you talk about depth though I'm actually not super familiar with all of the Canadian players that we've got right now. I think that's just because really I'm not back home too much and I, yeah, I'm just not really on the ball with that kind of stuff. I kind of wait for people to tell me information, I don't actively go seek it myself, so I'm not exactly sure where our full depth is. And when we look at an A team, a B team, a C team, for me it's kind of like I would hope that Canada could get to a point where we're like the Czech Republic, where like the A, B, C team is like so strong, and so even if we don't have our top players healthy we have other players that are close to the top that can still show up and play big tennis when it counts. So, yeah, that would be my hope for the future. I don't really know how many years I'm going to play. Obviously I always make myself available to play the ties as much as I can. I missed one this year, which I was really sad about, because I wasn't able to heal my foot from the beginning of the year when I hurt it, it would have just been a little bit too soon to start traveling again and be on the road. That was disappointing to me. But, yeah, I would hope that even if, in many years, you know, if we're not on the team, you know, who is coming up, who can kind of play for Canada and be the next sort of generation of our stars. I would be curious to know, you know, what systems are in place to make sure that we do have a lot of depth and that we are Billie Jean King Cup champion contenders for decades. That's what I would probably want to know, which I don't know right now.