New partner for Gaby Dabrowski in ’20

Canadian Gabriela Dabrowski and China’s Xu Yifan teamed together for the first time at the Miami Open in 2017.

They won the tournament.

After qualifying for the WTA Tour Finals at the end of this season, the pair called it a day.

And both have new and potentially successful partnerships to look forward to in 2020.

Xu will team up with Nicole Melichar, after the 26-year-old American ended her partnership with Kveta Peschke (but not her association with their coach, Peschke’s husband Torsten).

And Dabrowski will reunite with a player she has had success with in the past: 2017 French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko.

Dabrowski and Ostapenko have played together a few times over the last few years – notably the Doha tournament in 2018, which they won.

They will play Adelaide and the Australian Open together on the season-opening swing.

Never quite got over the hump

The auspicious start for Xu and Dabrowski in Miami was followed by four more tournament titles.

As it happens, the pair has an unofficial “Grand Slam warmup” Slam: Sydney, Nürnberg, Eastbourne and New Haven.

It was a little bit emblematic of their partnership. They came into Grand Slam tournaments in fine form – but at the biggest events, it never quite happened for the pair.

They came the closest in 2019, reaching the Wimbledon final.

Ostapenko a doubles regular

Ostapenko, who is still just 22, reached a career high of No. 5 in singles after Indian Wells in 2018. But since then, she has had her struggles.

*Dabrowski and Ostapenko won the Doha title in 2018 – and had some fun while they were at it.*

She did finish the 2019 season on a high note, though.

Ostapenko reached the final in Linz (losing to young phenom Coco Gauff) and won in Luxembourg with new coach Marion Bartoli by her side.

From a low of No. 83 in July, she rallied to finish the season inside the top 50.

On the doubles side, the Latvian has played regularly. And her current ranking of No. 22, which is a career high, makes it easy for she and Dabrowski to get into any tournament they choose.

In 2018, Ostapenko played in 14 WTA and Grand Slam tournaments in doubles, plus Fed Cup.

This season, she played 20 plus two Fed Cup ties.

But she played with a lot of different partners. The most regular was Lyudmyla Kichenok of Ukraine. But Ostapenko also played with Sorana Cirstea, Sloane Stephens, Renata Voracova, Veronika Kudermetova, Darija Jurak, Vera Zvonareva, Kirsten Flipkens and Dayana Yastremska.

In 2020, she can sign out of the “looking for doubles” chat group.

(If there is even such a thing).