Erin Hope Routliffe (born 11 April 1995) is a New Zealand professional tennis player who specializes in doubles. She represented Canada internationally until 2017. In her career, she has won two major doubles titles at the 2023 and 2025 US Open, partnering with Gabriela Dabrowski, thus becoming the second Kiwi woman to win a major in the Open Era, after 1979 Australian Open women's doubles champion, Judy Connor.
Routliffe is also a former world No. 1 in doubles, first achieving the feat on 15 July 2024. She and Dabrowski won the doubles title at the 2024 WTA Finals. Routliffe has won 12 WTA Tour doubles titles and represented New Zealand in the BJK Cup and at the 2024 Summer Olympics.
Early life Routliffe was born in New Zealand while her Canadian parents, Robert Routliffe and Catherine MacLennan, were on an around-the-world sailing adventure. They stayed there four years before returning to Canada. She has two sisters, Tara and Tess, the latter being an international para-swimmer. Both were also born in Auckland. She made the move to Montreal in September 2011 to train at the National Training Centre and stayed there until 2013.
Career College years She studied at the University of Alabama, majoring in public relations, and was part of its tennis team from September 2013 until her graduation in May 2017. Routliffe was a two-time NCAA doubles champion with Maya Jansen for the 2014 and 2015 seasons.
2010–2011: First ITF events In October 2010, Routliffe won the doubles title at the G4 in Burlington, Ontario. She won her first junior singles title at the same tournament a year later. In October 2011, she reached the quarterfinals in both singles and doubles at the 50k Challenger de Saguenay, with a win over Alizé Lim in the second round. She reached her second straight 50k doubles quarterfinal in Toronto the next week.
2012: Junior Wimbledon and US Open quarterfinals In April, Routliffe won the singles and doubles titles at the G2 in Cap-d'Ail. Later that month she made the doubles final of the G1 in Beaulieu-sur-Mer. She lost in the first round in singles at the junior French Open and Wimbledon, but reached the quarterfinals in doubles at Wimbledon. In August, she was awarded a wildcard in the qualifying draw at the Rogers Cup and made it to the second round. She made the doubles final of the G1 in Repentigny, Quebec in September. She was defeated in the first round in singles of the junior US Open, but reached the quarterfinals in doubles. She won the doubles title at the GB1 in Tulsa, Oklahoma with Carol Zhao, defeating Charlotte Petrick and Denise Starr in the final. Routliffe also reached two doubles quarterfinals in October: at the 50k Challengers in Saguenay and Toronto.
2013–14: Canada Summer Games gold medal Routliffe lost in the first round in singles of the junior 2013 Australian Open, but made the quarterfinals in doubles for her third straight major event. In February, she reached her first professional doubles final at the 25k tournament in Launceston, Tasmania. She was defeated in the first round in singles and the second in doubles at the junior 2013 French Open. At the beginning of July 2012, Routliffe made it to the semifinals in doubles at the 50k Cooper Challenger. In August, she won the gold medal in singles at the 2013 Canada Summer Games in Sherbrooke.
In July 2014, Routliffe and partner Carol Zhao made it to the semifinals at the 25k Challenger de Gatineau. A week later at the 25k Granby Challenger, she and Zhao reached the third doubles final of her career. They were supposed to face Hiroko Kuwata and Riko Sawayanagi for the title, but had to withdraw because of an injury.
2015–16: Maiden professional singles final In July 2015, Routliffe reached the doubles final in Granby (now a 50k event) for the second straight year, this time with Laura Robson, but they were defeated in straight sets by Australians Jessica Moore and Storm Sanders. The following month, Routliffe and partner Maya Jansen won the US Open National Playoffs in doubles, and were awarded a wildcard for the main draw. They were defeated in the first round by Raquel Kops-Jones and Abigail Spears.
Routliffe advanced to her first professional singles final in July 2016, at the 25k Winnipeg Challenger, where she was defeated by fellow qualifier Francesca Di Lorenzo in straight sets. In early October 2016, she won her first professional doubles title, partnering Andie Daniell, at Charleston, South Carolina.
2017–18: Nationality switch, Fed Cup debut, first WTA Tour final In June 2017, the ITF agreed to allow Routliffe to change her representational nationality to the country of her birth. Routliffe played her first Fed Cup ties for New Zealand against Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan in July, dropping only one game in her winning debut over Guljan Muhammetkuliyeva. In October 2017, this time with Di Lorenzo as her partner, she made it to the doubles final at the 60k Saguenay Challenger, Canada, but they had to withdraw following an injury to Di Lorenzo. The next week at the 60k Challenger in Toronto, she won her second doubles title, defeating Ysaline Bonaventure and Victoria Rodríguez, partnering Alexa Guarachi. In December, she reached the doubles final with Maya Jansen at a 15k event in Solapur, India.
In January 2018, with fellow New Zealander Jade Lewis, Routliffe won her third and fourth doubles titles, in consecutive weeks at ITF tournaments in Sharm El Sheikh. A week later, she collected her third successive title at the same venue, this time in singles over Nadja Gilchrist.
Routliffe then joined the New Zealand team in Bahrain for their 2018 Fed Cup Asia/Oceania Group II playoffs. Rested for the first day's tie against Lebanon, Routliffe had her first match the following day when New Zealand met top seeds Uzbekistan. Playing for the second time against its top player Sabina Sharipova (she had played her in the 2017 Fed Cup tie as well), Routliffe lost in straight sets. Losing all three rubbers, New Zealand nevertheless finished second in the group, and moved through to the 5th-8th place play-offs against Pakistan the following day, where Routliffe defeated Ushna Sohail in straight sets.
In Irapuato, Mexico, Routliffe won her third ITF doubles title for the year when she teamed with Alexa Guarachi again. They followed that with a loss in the semifinals at Jackson, Mississippi but won another title together a week later in Pelham, Alabama, and won their third title in four weeksin Dothan. The latter event, being an 80k tournament, was the biggest win for both players. They lost in the quarterfinals of the next tournament at the 80k-level in Charlottesville, Virginia but then won again in the last of the three events, at Charleston, South Carolina, where they beat Louisa Chirico and Allie Kiick.
Routliffe then went to South Korea to start a series of tournaments in Asia. With a new partner in Victoria Rodríguez, she lost in the semifinals of the first event in Incheon. Moving on to Thailand, the pair took out the title at the first tournament they played in Hua Hin, and completed the tournament double by winning again a week later.
Routliffe and Guarachi qualified for the 2018 Wimbledon Championships, but lost to the eventual champions Barbora Krejčíková and Kateřina Siniaková in the first round of the main-draw.
Teaming again with Guarachi at the 2018 Washington Open, her first WTA Tour event, they made the final, where they lost in straight sets to third seeds Han Xinyun and Darija Jurak.
At the 2018 New Zealand Championships, Routliffe lost in the semifinals of the singles to Valentina Ivanov, but won the doubles as top seed with Paige Hourigan.
2019: Mixed results
Given a wildcard into singles qualifying in Auckland, Routliffe was beaten in straight sets by Alexandra Panova. She and Guarachi lost to against Tímea Babos and Julia Görges in the doubles. They both went on to Hobart but took different partners, with Routliffe and Vera Lapko losing in the first round. Routliffe's next event was the Newport Beach Challenger in California, where she and Kristie Ahn lost in the first round to Manasse and Pegula.
She then had a series of tournaments where she lost in either the first or second round, until she came to defend her title in Irapuato. She and Anna Danilina lost in the semifinals, 6–7, 4–6 to the eventual champions Paige Hourigan and Australian Astra Sharma. She lost in the quarterfinals of her next two tournaments in Mexico, and then in the first round of the WTA tournament in Bogotá.
From there it was to the U.S. clay-court swing where, with Alexa Guarachi, they attempted to defend their title in Dothan, but were upset in the first round by Beatrice Gumulya and Abbie Myers. Routliffe teamed with Di Lorenzo to reach the quarterfinals in Charlottesville, and then with Allie Kiick to reach the semifinals at the next event in Charleston. At Bonita Springs, Guarachi and Routliffe won the tournament.
A semifinal loss in Spain was followed by a first-round exit at Surbiton and then a defeat in the quarterfinals at Nottingham to Monica Niculescu and Elena-Gabriela Ruse.
Routliffe then teamed with Madison Brengle for Wimbledon, losing in the first round to Han Xinyun and Oksana Kalashnikova. First or second round losses followed in Routliffe's next four tournaments. She teamed with Naomi Broady at the Vancouver Open to reach the final, losing to Nao Hibino and Miyu Kato.
2020: Interrupted season
Routliffe was given wildcards for both the qualifying singles and doubles at the Auckland Open. She lost her first singles match to Sara Errani, and she and Allie Kiick lost to Caroline Garcia and Julia Görges in the first round of doubles.
Her next stop was an ITF tournament in Burnie. She had to retire from her second round singles in qualifying against Irina Ramialison. She entered the main-draw as a lucky loser, and she was drawn to face Ramialison again. This time, she won in straight sets, but she lost her second round match to Maddison Inglis. She partnered Fanny Stollár in the doubles, and they lost their quarterfinal against Paige Hourigan and Destanee Aiava.
The ITF Circuit resumed in New Zealand after a break of seven years, the first women's event being in Hamilton. Routliffe and Emily Fanning won the doubles title.
Two tournaments in Perth followed, with Routliffe losing in the first round of singles in the first week, and in the final qualifying round in the second. She and Jaimee Fourlis were finalists in the first doubles event, but Routliffe had to default in the quarter-finals in the second week when her partner Arina Rodionova was injured playing singles. The latter had recovered by the time they moved to Mildura for the following week, and they made the final, losing to Tereza Mihalíková and Abbie Myers.
Playing doubles only, Routliffe resumed in the first tournament after the break because of COVID, the Lexington Challenger (with Robin Anderson), but lost in the first round, as she did in Prague (with Ingrid Neel), the tournament replacing the qualifying events for the US Open. She and Naomi Broady got to the quarterfinals of the İstanbul Cup, but she and Neel had another first-round defeat when they played in Cagnes-sur-Mer.
In Porto, she and Jana Fett were runners-up in a 25k tournament, and she equalled that result when she and Jamie Loeb were runners-up in Orlando, losing to Rasheeda McAdoo and Alycia Parks.
2021–22: First WTA Tour title, major quarterfinal, top 30 Routliffe won her first WTA Tour title in doubles at the 2021 Palermo Ladies Open, teaming with Kimberley Zimmermann to defeat Natela Dzalamidze and Kamilla Rakhimova in the final.