Routliffe, Dabrowski starts finals with win
- Dave Worsley
- 7 hours ago
- 2 min read
New Zealand's Erin Routliffe and Canadian Gaby Dabrowski have secured their first win in defensive of their WTA Finals title.
They scored a 6-3, 7-6(2) one hour 23 minute victory in their WTA Finals Riyadh opener over Mirra Andreeva and Diana Shnaider taking their record in Riyadh to a perfect 6-0.
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They showed resilience and clutch play to overturn a second-set deficit to secure the straight-sets win combining well as a pair.
After leading wire-to-wire in the first set, the third seeds came from a break down in the second set as Andreeva and Shnaider settled in in their WTA Finals debut. Down 5-3, Dabrowski and Routliffe won three straight games, and dominated the eventual tiebreak.
"They're a really tough match-up for us -- their lobs are amazing, their defense is amazing, you have to put away so many balls; it feels like the point never ends," said Routliffe after the match.
"I think we did a good job in the big moments of putting away the ball and staying aggressive."
Dabrowski also credited clutch play for the pair's turnaround. After neither side faced a deciding deuce point on serve in the first set, Dabrowski and Routliffe won three of the four games that featured one in the second set.
"I thought we really stuck with it in the second set, which was awesome," she said. "I thought our energy was good and it helped us get through some tight points, some deuce points -- they're never easy with the scoring format -- so I'm really proud of us."