Erin Routliffe

From there it was to the clay court swing in the USA where, reunited with Alexa Guarachi, they attempted to defend their title in Dothan, but were upset in the first round by Beatrice Gumulya and Abbie Myers. Guarachi then returned to the WTA circuit in Europe, so Routliffe teamed up with Francesca Di Lorenzo to reach the quarter-finals in Charlottesville, and then with Allie Kiick to reach the semi-finals at the next event in Charleston. These events had all had an increase in their prizemoney to $100,000 in 2019, and a fourth event at that level, in Bonita Springs, Florida, was added to the circuit. Guarachi returned to join Routliffe for this tournament, and they took the title to give Routliffe the biggest win in her career.

A semi-final loss in Spain was followed by a first-round exit at Surbiton and then a defeat in the quarter-finals at Nottingham to Monica Niculescu and Elena-Gabriela Ruse, in a match which was halted for an hour by rain at the end of the first set. Routliffe then flew to Kuala Lumpur for New Zealand's 2019 Fed Cup Group II tournament. Three easy wins in the round-robin doubles rubbers were followed by a three set victory over Malaysia in the play-offs, although New Zealand lost the tie.

Routliffe was straight back on a flight to London, where she teamed up with Madison Brengle for Wimbledon. They were just centimetres from victory in the first round when Routliffe hit the third of four match points in the second set fractionally over the baseline, but 35 minutes later it was all over, Han Xinyun and Oksana Kalashnikova having run away with the deciding set. First or second round losses followed in Routliffe's next four tournaments, and it wasn't until she teamed up with Naomi Broady in Vancouver that she reached another final, although they lost to Nao Hibino and Miyu Kato in straight sets. She would play only once more in 2019 after taking a long training block in New Zealand, losing in the first round in Toronto at the end of October to Broady and Hayley Carter when playing with Di Lorenzo.

Routliffe then joined the New Zealand team in Bahrain for their 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 their top player, Sabina Sharipova (she had played her in the 2017 Fed Cup tie as well), Routliffe fought well in the first set but tired in the second, losing 7–5, 6–1. 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 beat Ushna Sohail, 6–3, 6–1. The tie was won 3-0, New Zealand therefore finishing fifth equal with the Philippines.

Routliffe advanced to her first professional singles final in July 2016, at the 25K in Winnipeg, where she was defeated by fellow qualifier Francesca Di Lorenzo in straight sets. In early October she won her first professional doubles title, partnering Andie Daniell, at the 10K in Charleston.

Routliffe and Guarachi took a chance that they would be able to qualify for Wimbledon, and became the last team entered. They had straight sets wins over Priscilla Hon and Arantxa Rus, and Anna Kalinskaya and Viktoria Kuzmova, in the qualifying matches, before taking the eventual champions, Barbora Krejčíková and Kateřina Siniaková, to a third set in the first round of the main draw, the score being 6–2, 2–6, 6–2 to the young Czechs.

Routliffe followed that with a month-long training block in New Zealand before heading to Cairns for the first of a series of ITF tournaments in Australia. Beaten in singles qualifying, she and first-time partner Astra Sharma were second seeds in the doubles, and performed right up to that ranking. They met the top seeds Naiktha Bains and Xu Shi-lin in the final and, after a poor first set, couldn't convert either of their set points in the second set tie-break, eventually losing 6–1, 7–6. In Darwin, she and Ellen Perez lost in the quarterfinals. She had better luck with Freya Christie as her partner, reaching the semifinals in Brisbane and taking her ninth doubles title of the year in Toowoomba, but lost with different partners in the first round in both Bendigo and Canberra.

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 Kazakhstan's Anna Danilina were top seeds, but were upset in the semi-finals, 7–6, 6–4, by the eventual champions, fellow New Zealander Paige Hourigan and Australian Astra Sharma. She lost in the quarter-finals of her next two tournaments in Mexico, and then in the first round of the WTA tournament in Bogota.

Her next stop was an ITF tournament in Burnie, where she was the subject of one of the stranger happenings in recent times. She had to retire from her second round singles qualifying match against Irina Ramialison with what turned out to be a mild case of food poisoning. Not only did she end up in the main draw as a Lucky Loser, she was drawn to face Ramialison again. This time she was able to win in straight sets, but she lost her second round match to Maddison Inglis. She partnered Fanny Stollar in the doubles, and they lost their quarter-final against Paige Hourigan and Destanee Aiava in a long match tie-break. Routliffe and Stollar had two match points at 9–7, and two more later, but lost on Hourigan and Aiava's third match point, the decider finishing at 15–13.

Erin Routliffe (born April 11, 1995) is a New Zealand professional tennis player who has previously represented Canada. She reached a career-high singles ranking of world No. 591 on 22 October 2012 and a career-high junior rank of No. 17 on 21 January 2013. She studied at the University of Alabama and was part of their tennis team from September 2013 until her graduation in May 2017, majoring in public relations. Routliffe is a two-time NCAA doubles champion with Maya Jansen for the 2014 and 2015 seasons. Her win in the 2018 Hardee's Pro Classic in Dothan, Alabama allowed her to break into the top 200 in the doubles rankings for the first time, while her win two weeks later in Charleston, South Carolina pushed her into the top 150. Her runner-up finish in the Citi Open in Washington DC took her into the top 100.

Routliffe was born in New Zealand while her 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 paraswimmer. She made the move to Montreal in September 2011 to train at the National Training Centre and stayed there until 2013.

In October 2010, Routliffe won the doubles title at the G4 in Burlington. 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 ITF $50,000 in Saguenay, with a win over then world No. 229 Alizé Lim in the second round. She reached her second straight 50K doubles quarterfinals in Toronto the next week.