Gaby Dabrowski & Erin Routliffe Interview from the 2024 Miami Open

Gaby Dabrowski and Erin Routliffe are the 4th and 5th ranked doubles players on the WTA Tour. They won the 2023 US Open and have been on the show several times previously.

Previous Episodes:

• Gaby Dabrowski Interview
• Erin Routliffe Interview

In this short post-match interview from Miami, we discuss their 6-4 6-4 round of 16 victory.

• How they won a high percentage of 2nd serve points - 76%. Great lesson here!
• What they do on off days in Miami.
• Why Erin got frustrated in the 2nd set and what they did as a team to turn it around.
• Why Gaby's coach said "relax the shoulders" during her returns.

They talk through the adjustments they made during the match in great detail. Take note of these for your own doubles game.

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Transcript

Speaker 1 1:15

Gabby Dabrowski and Aaron Routliff are the fourth and fifth ranked doubles players on the WTA Tour. They won the 2023 US Open. They made the semifinals of the Australian Open and they've both been on the podcast a number of times. At this point, I'll link to some of the previous episodes below if you want to hear more from them, but this is a short post-match interview from the Miami Open, so I caught up with them after their round of 16 win. They won 6-4, 6-4.

Speaker 1 1:46

We talk about the match specifically. One thing that I noticed after the match was they really made a big difference on second serve points. So I asked them about that. There's something specific that they do on second serve points that they believe to help them in this match and something that I feel like you can take away for your own game. We also talk about how they plan to spend their days off. So they were the first team into the quarterfinals in Miami. They were definitely going to have two, maybe three days off, so I asked them how they plan to spend that time.

Speaker 1 2:22

We also talked about frustration from missing returns by Erin. So Erin was really frustrated. In the second set they were down two four. She felt like she was missing too many returns and they actually made an adjustment that seemed to work, because they were able to turn that set around and she was started to make more returns. So I think it's an adjustment that you can make for your own game if you are struggling with some returns. And then at the end I asked Gabby about a specific phrase that her coach told her during the match and what that meant and why he was telling her that.

Speaker 1 3:01

Uh, so Aaron and Gabby went on to win their quarterfinal match. Later today they're actually playing their semifinal match. So if you're listening to this when it's released on March 29th, uh, you can watch that on tennis channel plus. So, again, I'll link to um previous episodes with Aaron and Gabby If you want to hear more from them in the show notes. And, uh, without further delay, enjoy this brief post-match interview with Aaronaron routliff and gabby dobrowski. All right, so just a couple questions about the match and then kind of the tournament overall. Um, y'all are through to the quarterfinals now. Y'all are a step ahead of, I guess, most teams. Um, uh, what did y'all make make of the match earlier today?

Speaker 2 3:47

Well, overall I thought it was really good, even when we were down in a lot of games, but we really hung in there and so I think that showed really good resilience, that we didn't let those get away, that we just kind of kept sticking our nose in those points and luckily a lot of those games turned around in our favor, which pretty much made the match two sets instead of three, which is always nice, yeah one thing I noticed.

Speaker 1 4:16

Um, I was looking at the the stats after the match, which I always do, and uh, so the first serves were like pretty like first serve percentage, first serve win percentage, but on second serve y'all won 76%, they won 41%. So really the difference in the match seemed like second serves. Do you think there was something specific that y'all did to hold your second so effectively or return-wise to bring them down to 40%?

Speaker 3 4:43

I think probably on our seconds. We still try to run a lot of plays and get first touches at the net. I think that probably helps and they were good quality serves too, yeah of course. I remember when yours went by me, I was like nice serve good speed on it I think that's something we really focus on is just because it's a second serve doesn't mean we just go regular and then figure it out. We try to know what we're doing and get a touch of the ball. So that probably helped.

Speaker 1 5:06

Agreed and it looks like a lot of those second serve points. They A few of them, miyu specifically I think hit some down-the-line winners which you just kind of give up, I guess, running some of those plays, but some of them she misses by this much. That's just something you kind of live with.

Speaker 3 5:25

Totally. Yeah. If she can hit the alley like that consistently, then I feel like we look at the quality of our serve that we're giving her for her to be able to be that accurate and do it that fast, and then maybe we look at like our net person maybe like moving too fast or something, instead of like holding a little bit. But if she can do it, if anyone can do that like consistently and there's a lot of things that we can change before we're like, okay, none of that, yeah yeah, so I think y'all are the first team into the quarters, um for sure, so, uh.

Speaker 1 5:56

so y', like I said, a little bit ahead of some of the other teams at this point. You'll probably have a day or two off, maybe even three.

Speaker 3 6:03

Yes, Minimum two Minimum two Okay. The earliest we play is Wednesday. Okay.

Speaker 1 6:09

So what do you have planned for the next couple of days as far as, like, the city outside of practice and stuff like that, like the city outside of practice and stuff like that and I know you have to watch alabama tonight- um, right, yeah, so um, we don't have anything planned in the city.

Speaker 3 6:22

I don't think miami is a little chaotic for us yeah, um. What do we have planned I?

Speaker 2 6:29

don't know, I don't know, I'm re-watching shoots okay I'm watching. Yeah, we're just gonna practice. Okay, I'll read my book.

Speaker 3 6:35

We're not gonna do anything, we'll get treatment, we'll practice, we'll just wait, just relaxing, yeah, okay we're not gonna treat it any differently.

Speaker 2 6:41

Okay, I'll probably try to find good coffee, okay there you go, that's not starbucks, so maybe go to the mall for a coffee yeah, I think max purcell's been yeah, he went to naughty. He's got his coffee yeah, yeah I'll try.

Speaker 3 6:52

We'll probably practice a decent amount. You know, it's nice to kind of have some days to just practice.

Speaker 2 6:57

Yeah, where you can actually spend longer on the court without worrying about playing the next day and knowing you have time to get some reps in Right.

Speaker 1 7:05

One more question about the match specifically. So there was a moment, I think, in the second set you were down 2-4, maybe, erin. You got really frustrated for a little bit and then you started to turn it around. Were you frustrated by something specific or just in general kind of not playing your best during that kind of couple of games?

Speaker 3 7:26

um, I was frustrated. No, I don't think anything specific. I think I wasn't returning the way that I would have liked to be returning, and so that was frustrating me. I didn't think that they were hitting serves that were. I mean, they were good serves, but I think they were good enough that they would be giving me that much trouble, and they were, so I was just frustrated with myself did you make any adjustments to turn it around or just trusted the process um?

Speaker 3 7:49

I always trust the process, but I always do make adjustments. Yeah, I think probably not in that moment. A lot of times I'm the type of person I just need to get it out and then I'll be okay. But we definitely made an adjustment. Like Gabby stood back a bit when we were down or when we were up 5-4, because I was struggling on that side returning a D-list serve, and we don't normally do that because I don't know, I like returning, yeah, and O'Hara is a really aggressive returner so it's good for my position I felt like I couldn't find the core.

Speaker 3 8:17

So then us adjusting. That really helped. And then in the last game I made three. So I was like, whew, good time.

Speaker 1 8:24

Last question, gabby. One thing that I noticed Dan said during some of your returns was relax the shoulders. Is that like a technique thing that you all have worked on, or talk a little bit about why he says that?

Speaker 2 8:42

Yeah. I mean thing that y'all have worked on, or talk a little bit about why he says that yeah, I mean, I'm a little bit high strung, so tension lives in my shoulders and so I think just getting reminders to relax, and specifically relaxing my shoulders is a helpful cue.

Speaker 1 8:48

Yeah, yeah, okay, awesome, all right, thank you thank you.