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MELBOURNE, Australia – Canadians Gabriela Dabrowski and Erin Routliffe have seen their share of Jelena Ostapenko and Hsieh Su-Wei on the doubles court.

But never together.

And as they take the court Friday afternoon in Melbourne in quest of their first Australian Open women’s doubles final, they’ll be facing an unlikely duo that has clicked from the start of the tournament.

Here’s what they looked like in their first-round win.

A year ago, the two were on opposite sides of the net in the women’s doubles final, with Hsieh playing (and winning) with Elise Mertens, and Ostapenko with longtime partner Lyudmyla Kichenok. The teams also met at the WTA Finals in Riyadh, with Hsieh and Mertens prevailing again.

The usual doubles musical chairs having taken place in the offseason, Mertens is now partnered with Australia’s Ellen Perez, and Kichenok (whose fiancé coached Ostapenko last year, but no longer goes, make of that what you will) with Hao-Ching Chan of Taipei.

First match a defeat in Adelaide

Their debut two weeks ago in Adelaide wasn’t great, nor was the draw great; they faced the strong American pair of Ashlyn Krueger and Jessica Pegula, and lost 6-3, 7-5.

But upon arrival in Melbourne, their Grand Slam legs kicked in. And after Ostapenko went out in the first round to the returning Belinda Bencic, she had all the time to focus.

First game Tereza Mihalikova and Olivia Nicholls, a decent team – a 7-5, 6-2 win.

Them came the Chinese pair of Xu Yifan and Yang Zhaoxuan – a 6-4, 6-4 win.

The third-round against another new team, No. 13 seeds Timea Babos and Nicole Melichar-Martinez, was another routine win – 6-4, 6-3.

In the quarterfinals, they squeaked past an inspired Marta Kostyuk and Elena-Gabriela Ruse, 7-5 in the third set.

Now, they face the No. 2 seeds, Canadian Dabrowski and Cana-Kiwi Routliffe, who ended their 2024 campaign by winning the WTA Finals.

Late start, good fight

The Cana-Kiwian team got off to a late start in 2025 due to a rib injury to Routliffe that needed a longer off-season than she had to heal. They ended up missing Auckland – which for Routliffe in her adopted country (she was born there, but moved away as a young child), was tough.

So they were a little rusty-looking as they got going in Melbourne, not surprisingly.

The pair lost to Kichenok and Ostapenko in the Australian Open semifinals a year ago, and in a match tiebreak in the Eastbourne final last summer. But they beat them in Dubai on hard courts last February.

They defeated Hsieh (with Wang Xinyu) in China last fall and in the semifinals at the 2023 US Open, which they ended up winning.

But they’ve never faced the two together.

The Cana-Kiwis lost the first set of their first three matches before coming back to win. In the quarterfinals, they probably faced the least-challenging opponent of the week in Miyu Kato and Renata Zarazua, who didn’t have much to hurt them.

That one might have gotten them back on track.

Power and finesse

Hsieh and Ostapenko might be an unlikely pair, but they’re a super-effective one.

Ostapenko can lock it down from the baseline and just refuse to miss – and create opportunities for the silky hands of Hsieh to finish points off at the net.

Hsieh, who turned 39 earlier this month and disappeared for some 18 months in 2022 and the first part of 2023, has lost nothing and is currently ranked No. 6 in the world after starting from nothing.

Even better, Ostapenko – who is already a much cheerier presence on the doubles court than the singles court – seems awed and amazed by some of the shots Hsieh pulls off.

The two look like they’ve been having a great time.

So the question is: can they win a major together in just their second tournament together?

Dabrowski and Routliffe won the 2023 US Open in only their fourth tournament together, having debuted just the previous month at the Canadian event