Winning start for Kiwi doubles pair

A high-five for Erin Routliffe (right) and Gaby Dabrowski into the semis at Strasbourg WTA PHOTO: WTA TOUR

New Zealand's Erin Routliffe and Canadian Gaby Dabrowski are through to the semifinals in Strasbourg, France, with a 6-4 2-6 10-8 win over Spaniard Cristina Bucsa and China’s Xu Yifan.

It was the first time this year that Routliffe and Dabrowski have won a match despite winning fewer points than their opponents.

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It was mainly down to the second set, where they dropped two service games and weren’t able to get a break against Bucsa and Xu.

But the tournament’s top seeds managed to take out the third set super tiebreak 10-8 as they build up for the French Open..

In the semifinals, Routliffe and Dabrowski will play against Timea Babos from Hungary and Brazil’s Luisa Stefani, who had a walkover in their quarterfinal match.

In the fisrt round they defeated the Chinese duo of Wang Xin Yu and Zheng Saisai 6-2 6-2 in 64 minutes.

Routliffe is currentl ranked third on the WTA rankings while Dabrowski is fifth.

Meanwhile, Michael Venus and Nikola Mektic lost their first round match 6-3 6-3 against Sander Arends and Luke Johnson at the ATP 500 tournament in Hamburg, Germany.