PARIS — Gabriela Dabrowski’s French Open run ended Friday with an emphatic defeat in the women’s doubles semifinals.
The No. 1 team in the world, Czechia's Katerina Siniakova and American Taylor Townsend, trounced Dabrowski and Brazilian partner Luisa Stefani 6-0, 6-1.
But as she leaves Paris and heads to the grass-court season, the Canadian will have that semifinal and a mixed doubles final to show for her fortnight’s work.
“I mean, if you would've told us in April when we were both injured that we were going to be winning Strasbourg and making semis at the French, I think we'd have taken that all day long," said the 34-year-old from Ottawa, who will leave with nearly 105,500 euros (C$170,000) in prize money between the two events.
"So I'm really proud of us for how hard we worked to get here,”
Both Dabrowski and Stefani missed representing their respective countries in Billie Jean King Cup competition in April.
Dabrowski is banged up; a foot injury curtailed her pre-season preparation and had her arriving late to Melbourne for the Australian stretch that opens the season. She has also been managing a knee issue and a plantar fascia tear in her left foot.
Dabrowski and Stefani also had to skip the WTA 1000 event in Madrid. They hadn’t competed since the Miami Open, on hard court in late March, when they lost their opener at the WTA 1000 in Rome last month.
They played a WTA 500 tournament in Strasbourg, France, the week before the French Open and won it.
Between that title and the semifinal effort in Paris, Dabrowski will leap from No. 6 to No. 3 in the WTA individual doubles rankings, right behind Siniakova and Townsend.
It's a rare match where the Canadian-Brazilian tandem can’t come back from a slow start, or figure out a way to counter a hot opponent.
It didn’t help that Stefani took ill Thursday night and didn’t feel anywhere near her best, at the worst possible time.
“The biggest factor today is that we just got outplayed. I think they played amazing. They served well and they made it really hard for us to dig our teeth in,” Dabrowski said.
“I think we just have some things to improve to raise our level for the coming weeks.”
Townsend and Siniakova, who will play their first French Open final as a duo on Sunday, won 90 per cent of the points on their first serve. Dabrowski and Stefani won just 42 per cent on their own first deliveries and were broken six times in eight opportunities.
“They have to have a bad day; it’s hard to beat them when they’re playing at that level," Dabrowski said.
"You obviously have to try to make them have a bad day and make them question themselves, but today we weren't able to do that. So hopefully we get to play them again, which would be great, and we can find ways to do that.”
That the match time hit exactly one hour was only because of Stefani’s comfort break after the first set.
“I think today's just a really good lesson and hopefully, you know, the bodies are feeling better soon and we can implement some of those things for Wimbledon. But overall it’s definitely beyond satisfactory — very great results,” Dabrowski said.
On Thursday, Dabrowski and first-time partner Evan King faced the best mixed doubles team in the world, Italians Andrea Vavassori and Sara Errani, and took them to the match tiebreak before falling.
Dabrowski and King, both born in 1992, knew each other in the juniors.
“We’re not close friends. But of course we’ve been seeing each other on the various circuits — every circuit — during our careers,” she said.
Dabrowski’s coach Dan Kiernan also coaches men’s doubles specialist Andre Goransson of Sweden — who is a close friend of King’s.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 5, 2026.
Stephanie Myles, The Canadian Press
