Seeking a new doubles partner, Luisa Stefani dreams of the Finals
In an interview, the Brazilian tennis player talks about the end of her partnership with Dabrowski, focuses on her good moment on the grass season and still dreams of playing in the Finals, despite not having a fixed pair.
Luisa Stefani returns to the grass courts on Tuesday (27) to play the first round of the WTA 500 in Eastbourne, England. But instead of teaming up with Frenchwoman Caroline Garcia, with whom she has just won the WTA 500 title in Berlin, and with whom she will play at Wimbledon, the Brazilian tennis player is teaming up with Chinese Yang Zhaoxuan.
It’s a question of priorities. Stefani specializes in doubles, while Garcia focuses on singles, and chose not to compete in this week’s doubles tournament. Although the pairing of the two was a perfect fit in Germany, it came about at the last minute.
“I saw that she was on the list (for the Berlin tournament). Even though she doesn’t always play doubles, when she does, she plays well. At the start of the grass-court season, a lot of singles players like to play to get more practice time on grass. So I texted her and she said she’d be willing to play here and that she was looking for a partner for Wimbledon. So I agreed to play there.”
The pair may not be the favourites, but the crowd can expect a great run from them at the All England Club tournament starting next week. Their game came together very well from the start, which was a little surprising given that their goal in Germany was to get used to playing on grass, as Luisa explained.
The French-Brazilian team only faced a tough test in the final against Katerina Siniakova, world number one in doubles, and Marketa Vondrousova, both from the Czech Republic. Luisa and Caroline were defeated in the first set, but managed to save three match-points in the tie-breaker of the second set before winning it. In the match’s tie-breaker, however, they secured victory by winning the last six points and subsequently lifting the trophy.
“This match was important for us to know that there will be ups and downs and that we can get back into the match, even if we’re struggling. (…) I think this tournament was great for us to get to know each other better, to know the way we’re going to play and to go into Wimbledon confident. Now we just have to enjoy the moment and have fun, because the result will come.”
The aim for the young Brazilian is to learn from the skills of her duo and enjoy the games without any pressure, knowing that playing with Garcia is “a temporary thing”, as Luisa said in the interview. After all, the French star is concentrating on singles, where she is ranked 5th in the world.
As such, it is likely that Luisa will be looking for a new partner after the first full grass season of her career. The 14th-placed doubles player still hopes to reach the WTA Finals, the tournament that brings together the best players of the season. A few months back, Luisa wanted to achieve this objective with Gabriela Dabrowski, but the comeback of this pair, formerly victorious, did not go as planned.
‘Stefanowski’: a fairy tale with a very human ending
Luisa Stefani had a promising start of the season, winning 13 matches in a row and three titles. She triumphed at the Adelaide tournament with American Taylor Townsend, at the Australian Grand Slam in mixed doubles with Brazilian Rafael Matos and at the Abu Dhabi WTA 500 with Chinese Shuai Zhang.
Reproduction: Instagram @luisastefani / Photo: André Ferreira — FFT
In March, Luisa Stefani announced that she was teaming up again with Canadian Gabriela Dabrowski. It was a moment of excitement, especially for the fans who had been waiting for the resumption of a fairy tale that had begun in August 2021 but had been interrupted in a nefarious way after just one month.
Dabrowski and Stefani were finalists at the WTA 500 in Ostrava in 2020, but formed a partnership the following year, shortly after the Brazilian’s Olympic triumph. Within a month, Gaby and Luisa reached the finals of the WTA 500 in San José and the WTA 1000 in Cincinnati before winning the WTA 1000 in Montreal. At the US Open, the momentum grew with each match until Luisa fell at the net in the semi-final and injured her knee, putting her out of action for a year.
On her return to the courts, Luisa had the opportunity to play with Gabriela and together they won the WTA 250 in Chennai. They didn’t continue together because the Canadian had returned to play with Olmos, with whom she played most of the tournaments in 2022 and reached the WTA Finals.
There were no titles, not even a semi-final appearance, in this new reunion, which began in Indian Wells in 2023. After losing in the round of 16 at Roland Garros, Stefani decided to end the cycle.
“It was a bit of a shame in the end because we were very good friends, so it’s very difficult to separate things between professional and personal. At the same time, I think it was the right decision for me at the time. And I’m happy with my decision.”
And this is no time for wild theories. “The partnership ended like so many others,” the tennis player explains, making it clear that it was a matter of results. “Everyone reacts in their own way, I can only control how I react and how I take care of myself in this situation,” she added. In conversation, Luisa wished the former duo a great future on the circuit and hinted that they shouldn’t be back any time soon.
A duo to call her own?
Half the year is gone, but with all the good results Luisa Stefani has achieved, it’s not too far-fetched to imagine her playing in the WTA Finals in China in October. The difficulty lies in finding the right partnership.
“There is still the whole fast court tour and the Asian swing. So if I can find a steady partner and we can get along and have good results, that would be the ideal scenario.”
But the search for the ideal scenario must not be a constant in the player’s life. It’s more like an important plan for the near future. For now, Luisa is trying to make the most of the grass season.
“I think it’s a bit premature to worry about that. I’d rather concentrate on each tournament, concentrate on Wimbledon which is coming up, but it’s something I think about in the long term (…). If it doesn’t happen now, that’s fine, there are things that are out of my hands at the moment.”
For a doubles pair to qualify for the WTA Finals, they must have played together in at least two WTA tournaments or Grand Slams during the current year on the circuit. Most importantly, they must have accumulated enough points. Currently, the pair, who are eighth in the race for the final qualifying spot, have 1,858 points.
Luisa and Gabriela Dabrowski have 790 points. The doubles with Taylor Townsend, Shuai Zhang and Caroline Garcia earned 470 points each. Either Luisa will play with one of them again or she will have to start from scratch. So who will join her after the London tournament? Even the Brazilian does not know yet.
