Italian Open: Who Is Coco Gauff’s New Doubles’ Partner Following the Absence of Jessica Pegula From the Event

Erin Routliffe and Coco Gauff have hit the jackpot, reaching the final of the Italian Open in Rome! While Gauff’s initial partner, Jessica Pegula, is recovering from a back injury, the American has proceeded to the final with her new partner. The most important query at the moment is: who is Erin Routliffe, the 29-year-old tennis pro who is dazzling beside Gauff?

Both of them will go against Italy’s Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini in the doubles final. In her career, the New Zealand-born professional tennis player, a former Canadian representative, has achieved notable success. Remarkably, she won the NCAA doubles championship in 2014 and 2015 with Maya Jansen as her partner.

The 29-year-old’s greatest performance at a major tournament came at the 2023 US Open, where she won her first Grand Slam doubles title alongside Gabriela Dabrowski. After Judy Connor’s women’s doubles championship at the 1979 Australian Open, she became the first New Zealand woman to win the competition and only the second to win a major title in the Open Era.

Using a wildcard into her home tournament in Auckland in 2023, Erin Routliffe made her singles WTA Tour main-draw debut. She lost in three sets against Elena-Gabriela Ruse in the opening round. She did, however, find success in doubles, as she and Aldila Sutjiadi won their third championship at the 2023 ATX Open.

They won the title in an exciting final, taking three sets to overcome top seeds Nicole Melichar-Martinez and Ellen Perez. However, as she advances to her second straight Rome final, the 20-year-old tennis star is aiming to outperform her showing from the previous year.

In Rome the previous year, Gauff and Jessica Pegula came in second and third, respectively, to Storm Hunter and Elise Mertens. Subsequently, the third-ranked tennis player, who has been quite regular in doubles, earlier this year opened up about playing fewer doubles matches next year.

Next year, Coco Gauff wants to “play a little bit less doubles”

This year hasn’t been particularly kind to the young American tennis player in doubles. Although she and Pegula advanced to the Indian Wells quarterfinals at the beginning of the season, her Miami Open experience wasn’t what she had hoped for.

She said, in an interview earlier this year, “Honestly it just depends how I’m feeling. I will say next year I do want to play a little bit less doubles maybe after the Olympics, but it’s tough right now I feel like to just stop playing completely when you are doing well with someone who is from your same country, which you don’t see that in a lot of teams.”

Well, this year, the US Open champion is ready to focus on the Olympics after missing out on the Tokyo Olympics, because of COVID-19. On the other hand, it will be interesting to watch how she performs on the court with some newfound vigor now that her new relationship with Routliffe is taking shape.