ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- The WTA announced Monday the doubles teams of Gabriela Dabrowski & Erin Routliffe and Nicole Melichar-Martinez & Ellen Perez became the sixth and seventh pairings to qualify for the GNP Seguros WTA Finals Cancun, leaving one qualification place remaining for the season-ending tournament.
Both pairings will make their debuts as a team at the WTA Finals and will join Coco Gauff & Jessica Pegula, Storm Hunter & Elise Mertens, Barbora Krejcikova & Katerina Siniakova, Demi Schuurs & Desirae Krawczyk and Shuko Aoyama & Ena Shibahara in the doubles draw. Krejcikova will also serve as an alternate in singles, along with Greece’s Maria Sakkari.
This season will mark Gabriela Dabrowski’s fifth overall appearance at the WTA Finals, while partner Erin Routliffe, the first-ever qualifier from New Zealand, will be making her debut at the event.
They teamed up in August and enjoyed immediate success by winning the US Open, which was both players' first Grand Slam title and more recently triumphed at the WTA 500 Bank of Communications Zhengzhou Open. Canada’s Dabrowski and Routliffe further boosted their qualification hopes by reaching the final at the WTA 1000 Guadalajara Open AKRON Presented by SANTANDER and the semifinals at WTA 250 Tennis in the Land in Cleveland.
Nicole Melichar-Martinez and Ellen Perez are making their team debut at the WTA Finals, with Melichar-Martinez bringing the experience of two further appearances and a semifinal run from 2021. The pair have reached four finals this season, at the WTA 1000 Western & Southern Open (Cincinnati), WTA 500 Rothesay International Eastbourne and at WTA 250 tournaments at the ATX Open (Austin) and Tennis in the Land (Cleveland).
Perez is bidding to be the first Australian WTA Finals doubles champion since 2006, when Samantha Stosur teamed with Lisa Raymond from the United States. Melichar-Martinez is looking to become the first woman from the U.S. to triumph since Raymond and Liezel Huber in 2011.
The GNP Seguros WTA Finals Cancun features the Top 8 singles players and doubles teams on the Race to the WTA Finals, competing in a round-robin format with the singles champion winning the WTA Finals Billie Jean King Trophy and the doubles champions earning the WTA Finals Martina Navratilova Trophy.
Click here to see the latest Race to the WTA Finals leaderboard in doubles, with only one qualifying place remaining.
Buy your tickets for the GNP Seguros WTA Finals Cancun 2023.
