Routliffe good to go for AO, playing mixed doubles with Venus

Erin Routliffe has declared she’s over the rib injury that forced her to miss the ASB Classic and is good to go for the Australian Open.

Routliffe and her regular partner Gaby Dabrowski are the No 2 seeds in Melbourne for the women’s doubles, but they have a tricky first-round match against the American duo of Danielle Collins and Desirae Krawczyk.

The match will be played on either Wednesday or Thursday and Routliffe says she has fully recovered from the rib injury sustained during her victorious campaign with Dabrowski at the WTA Finals in Saudi Arabia last November.

“Yeah, I’m feeling good,” Routliffe said. 

“I've obviously been hitting for over a week and I'm tracking well, definitely a lot better than I was before. So all good.”

Routliffe is so confident she’s over the injury that she has agreed to team up with Michael Venus for the mixed doubles at the Australian Open.

A positive of Routliffe getting injured when she did is that she didn’t miss many tournaments, but unfortunately one she had to skip was the ASB Classic and it’s always special for her to play in front of New Zealand tennis fans.

“I love playing in Auckland and that's always the best way to start the year,” she said. 

“So having to pull out and not being able to play was a bit of a dagger. 

“I guess injuries happen, and I'm glad it happened in the off season rather than during the year, because our year is so long, so I guess it was a little bit of a blessing. 

“But, yeah, it definitely sucked.”

Although Routliffe didn’t play at the Classic, she still came to Auckland, the city of her birth.

She picked up the award for New Zealand International Player of the Year, during a day when she popped into the Manuka Doctor Arena to watch some tennis. She also spent a week training with Dabrowski for the new season.

“She was really happy to come to Auckland and train, which was nice,” Routliffe said.

“Obviously, she could have played Adelaide with somebody else, but she chose to come and have the team all together. 

“It was really fun. We had a really great week.”