Routliffe progresses in heat at Australian Open
- editor59343
- 2 hours ago
- 2 min read
After lengthy delays due to heat issues New Zealand's Erin Routliffe and American Asia Muhammad have beaten Shuko Aoyama (Japan) and Magda Linette (Poland).
The scoreline of 7-6(3), 4-6 6-3 took two hours 29 minutes in the second round at the Australian Open.
The match started several hours later than scheduled and was still warm on court, but not at the peak of 40 degrees.
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In the first set the pair of Routliffe and Muhammad who are seeded sixth shot out to a 3-1 lead after breaking Linette's serve, but the next game Routliffe dropped her serve. Games then went with serve until Aoyama dropped and Muhammad dropped as they went to a tiebreak which was won by the seeded pair 7-3 after a couple of mini breaks.
In the second set the Japanese and Polish players got off to a good start breaking Muhammad's serve and then Routliffe as well in the seventh game for a 5-2 lead.
Aoyama lost her serve in the next game as Muhammad then held, but Linette kept her own serve to take the set 6-4.
In the final set there was an early break on Linette's serve and holds until 4-2 for Routliffe and Muhammad before the later dropped her serve.
Eventually Aoyama was broken in the next game before Routliffe raced through her serve to take the match 6-3.
The Australian Open is the first Grand Slam together for Routliffe, a two-time US Open champion and Muhammad.
In the third round they'll face Ena Shibahara (Japan) and Russian veteran Vera Zvonareva for a place in the last eight of the tournament.