Canadian wins doubles at Paris
PARIS Gabriela Dabrowski etched her name into the history books at the French Open on Thursday.
The Ottawa native became the first Canadian woman to capture a Grand Slam title as she and Indian partner Rohan Bopanna rallied to beat Anna-Lena Groenefeld of Germany and Robert Farah of Colombia 2-6, 6-2, 12-10 in the mixed doubles final.
“It feels very special,” she said of the feat. “It’s something that you always dream about as a kid. It’s kind of funny, because you never know where the journey is going to take you, singles, doubles, now mixed doubles. I couldn’t be more happy.”
The last Canadian woman to reach the mixed doubles final in Paris was Jill Hetherington of Peterborough, Ont., in 1995. She and South African partner John Lafnnie de Jager lost to Ukrainian Larisa Savchenko Neiland and Todd Woodbridge of Australia.
She joins decorated doubles veteran Daniel Nestor, Sebastien Lareau and Vasek Pospisil as the only Canadians to win a Grand Slam title.
The 25-year-old Ottawa native is having the best year of her professional career, rising to the top 20 in the WTA’s women’s doubles rankings after capturing the title in Miami with China’s Xu Yifan.
It’s the third Grand Slam tournament for the Dabrowski-Bopanna tandem after the 2016 U.S. Open and the Australian Open earlier this year.
In Paris, the No. 7 seeds upset No.3 pair Andrea Hlavackova and Edouard Roger-Vasselin in Wednesday’s semifinal and the second-ranked pair of Sania Mirza and Ivan Dodig in the quarterfinals. They hadn’t dropped a set until Thursday’s final.