This Saturday morning (21) could be a great one for Brazilian tennis. Starting at 9:30 am (Brasília time), the duo formed by Luisa Stefani from São Paulo, number 14 in the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) ranking, with Canadian Gabriela Dabrowski (10th) decides the WTA 1000 in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, against the partnership of German Laura Siegemund (31st) and Russian Vera Zvonareva (81st).
If she is champion, Luisa returns to the top-10 of the ranking, taking 10th place on the list. The São Paulo native occupied a place among the ten best doubles artists in the world between November 2021 and the second week of January, returning between September and October 2023 and then from April to May 2024. Dabrowski, in turn, could jump to second place. In case of runner-up, the Brazilian maintains 14th place and the Canadian moves up to third.
Luisa Stefani and Gabriela Dabrowski- Disclosure/WTA/Rights Reserved
Luisa can win the 15th title of her career. Of the 14, two were alongside Dabrowski: the WTA 1000 in Montreal, Canada, in 2021; and the WTA 250 in Chennai, India, the following year.
Qualifying for the 24th final of the Brazilian’s career came with a taste of revenge. This Friday (20), she and Dabrowski defeated the partnership of Kazakh Anna Danilina (7th) and Serbian Aleksandra Krunic (11th) by 2 sets to 1, with splits of 4/6, 6/2 and 10-6 in the super tie-break (tiebreaker set in which the winner is whoever reaches 10 points or 11 points onwards, opening two points ahead), in 1h29 of departure.
Danilina and Krunic had defeated the partnership between the São Paulo native and the Canadian in the last two events: the WTA 1000 in Doha, Qatar, and the Australian Open. Interestingly, the clashes also took place in semi-finals.
“Super happy with the first final of the season. Another tough game against them, a game that ended up being uncomfortable, but we remained patient. We made small adjustments from past games, took advantage of the opportunities in the second set and played a more solid super tie-break, firmer than them”, analyzed Luisa, in a press release.
The WTA 1000 level tournaments are the most important on the circuit. Only the Grand Slams, the four biggest competitions in world tennis, have greater importance in the season. They are: Australian Open, Roland Garros, Wimbledon and US Open.
