Gabriela Dabrowski Wins Wuhan Open Doubles: Third Straight Title With Luisa Stefani

There are hot streaks, and then there's whatever Gabriela Dabrowski and Luisa Stefani are doing right now. On Sunday, October 18, the Canadian-Brazilian duo won the Wuhan Open women's doubles title — their third title in a row, their sixth of the season, and the one that punched their ticket to the WTA Finals. At this point, beating them feels less like a match and more like a math problem nobody can solve.

Photo: Daniel Cooper via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

The final had a little bit of everything. The top-seeded Dabrowski and Stefani took on the defending champions, Australia's Storm Hunter and Czechia's Katerina Siniakova, at the Dongfeng Voyah Center Court. The favourites broke early to build a 4-1 lead in the first set — and then nearly gave it all away. Hunter and Siniakova stormed back to win four straight games and lead 5-4.

That's when the good teams separate from the great ones. Dabrowski and Stefani steadied, broke in the 12th game to steal the set 7-5, then broke twice in the second set while dropping serve once to close it out 7-5, 6-4 in one hour and 32 minutes. Stefani pointed to a single deuce point in the first set — Hunter missing a backhand — as the hinge the whole match swung on. "I think matches like this are decided in a few moments and a couple of points," she said. "And we could have been set down in the first set."

Three weeks, three cities, zero losses

Context matters, because this run is getting silly in the best way. Before Wuhan, the pair won in São Paulo. Before that, the China Open in Beijing — where they beat Siniakova's team in the final too. Sunday's victory was their eighth title as a team and their 26th career doubles title for the 34-year-old Dabrowski, the Ottawa native who has quietly become one of the most decorated doubles players of her generation.

The season tally now reads: Dubai, Strasbourg, Eastbourne, São Paulo, Beijing, Wuhan. Their career record as a team improved to 79-19. And that 79-19, more than any trophy, tells you what you're dealing with — a team that wins four out of every five matches it plays.

"I'm really pleased with where we are and where our level is," Dabrowski said in her post-match press conference. "I think we're doing a lot of the right things, whether it's in practice or matches. So it's really nice to see it pay off in results consistently throughout the season."

Why this pair works, in plain terms

Doubles partnerships are like marriages — most of them fail, and nobody can fully explain why the ones that work do. But with Dabrowski and Stefani, the recipe is visible on court. Stefani brings the Brazilian flair at net, all quick hands and angles. Dabrowski, a lefty, brings the serving weapon and the calm of a player who has been in every big final worth naming. Against Hunter and Siniakova, they hit five aces to none, converted five breaks in 19 opportunities, and survived the one stretch where the match genuinely tilted against them.

The defending champions weren't pushovers. Hunter and Siniakova, the third seeds, had won their semifinal in a 12-10 match tiebreak over Italy's Errani and Paolini — they came in battle-tested. They just ran into a team that, right now, doesn't lose finals.

The WTA Finals, and a Canadian worth celebrating

With Sunday's win, Dabrowski and Stefani qualified for the season-ending WTA Finals next month — the tournament where the year's eight best doubles teams settle it. It's a fitting stage. Dabrowski is chasing the kind of career-capping results that put a player in the Hall of Fame conversation, and she is doing it the hard way: week after week, continent after continent, at 34, in a discipline that gets a fraction of the attention singles does.

Canadian tennis fans have been spoiled lately, but it's worth pausing on this one. An Ottawa kid, 26 career titles, eight WTA 1000 crowns, and right now the hottest doubles team on the planet. Wuhan was the proof. The WTA Finals are the stage. And if the last three weeks are any guide, the smart money isn't betting against them.

Sources

• WTA — Dabrowski, Stefani capture Wuhan doubles crown, third title in a row
• Tennis Canada — Dabrowski and Stefani win Wuhan Open to capture third straight title
• TSN / Canadian Press — Canadian Dabrowski, Brazilian partner Stefani capture Wuhan Open doubles title