Gabriela Dabrowski fell one victory short of her first Grand Slam title in women’s doubles on Sunday.
The 27-year-old Ottawa native and partner Xu Yifan of China were defeated by the in-form team of Barbora Strycova of the Czech Republic and Hsieh Su-Wei of Chinese Taipei 6-2, 6-4 in the final.
The victory means Strycova, who reached her first career Grand Slam singles semi-final this Wimbledon at the age of 33, will become the new No. 1 in women’s doubles when the updated WTA Tour rankings come out on Monday.
“Over all, a very good two weeks. We both played well at the same time in the majority of our matches. But today was very disappointing — especially my service game that we lost in the first set. That was pretty crucial,” Dabrowski said.
For Dabrowski, it was one step further than she and Xu went a year ago, when they lost a 6-3, 4-6, 7-5 heart-breaker in the semi-finals to Nicole Melichar of the United States and Kveta Peschke of the Czech Republic.
Dabrowski will take home US$267,000 between the women’s doubles final and the third-round result in the mixed doubles with Mate Pavic of Croatia.
Earlier in the day, Liam Draxl of Newmarket, Ont., and U.S. partner Govind Nanda were beaten by the top-seeded Czech team of Jonas Forejtek and Jiri Lehecka 7-5, 6-4 in the boys’ doubles final.