–

MELBOURNE, Australia – Gabriela Dabrowski and Erin Routliffe came into this Australian Open with little pre-season training and no warmup tournaments.

So all in all, a semifinal result after they were beaten 7-6 (3), 3-6, 6-3 by No. 3 seeds Hsieh Su-Wei and Jelena Ostapenko on Friday, was a pretty good outcome even if they had their chances.

The pair never really got it going for extended periods of time during their run to the final four, although there was plenty of vintage Dabrowski-Routliffe doubles.

Routliffe said after the team’s first-round win over Americans Desirae Krawczyk and Danielle Collins that, after a rib injury carried over through the off-season, she only began hitting 10 days before the tournament.

“I’ve been easily frustrated. You know, when you are really confident in something and then you don’t get to do it, and you’re missing the reps. I really leaned on Gaby a lot,” she said.

They lost the first set in each of their first three matches, but managed to prevail. Only their quarterfinal victory over Miyu Kato and Renata Zarazua – who had upset two seeded teams en route – was fairly routine.

But against the new and inspired pairing of Hsieh and Ostapenko, they got off to a great start, up two breaks after the first three games. But then, they lost a 13-minute game at 5-4 when they were serving for the first set, and fell away a little in the third as Ostapenko, in particular, played lights out.

Here’s what it looked like.

Back from cancer battle in 2024

A few weeks before the tournament began, Dabrowski chronicled her 2024 battle with breast cancer on her Instagram account.

That was the reason she missed the entire clay-court swing in the spring. And she paused further treatment after two surgeries to compete at Wimbledon (where she and Routliffe made the final) and the Olympics (where she and Félix Auger-Aliassime won the bronze medal in mixed doubles).

We made several interview requests in Melbourne; it’s an inspiring story that a lot of tennis fans would be interested in knowing more about. But we were declined.

Dabrowski did say, after her first-round match, that the reaction has been really positive so far.

“My intention is to just get the message out there that early detection is super important and to not hesitate if you’re not sure what something is. Like, definitely push for a follow-up because it’s better to get something taken care of sooner rather than later. Especially when it comes to something like cancer,” she said. “So I feel like I’m in a very privileged position to be making it through. I just want to offer support to others who may need it.”

More photo galleries from Dabrowski and Routliffe’s Australian Open ride.