Fightback win for Routliffe, Dabrowski at US Open

Erin Routliffe and Gaby Dabrowski fought back after losing the first set to defeat Quinn Gleason from the United States and Brazil’s Ingrid Martins 6-7(4) 6-4 6-2.

This second round match on Sunday (Monday NZ time) was a tougher battle than Routliffe and Dabrowski faced in their opening 6-3 6-0 win over Miriam Skoch and Marketa Vondrousova, but by the time of the third set, they had hit their straps and were playing dazzling doubles tennis.

The first set was dominated by the serve with neither team even having a break point.

But in the tiebreak Team USA/Brazil went up an early mini break and kept hold of that lead for the remainder of it.

The second set started with Martins being broken and that was all the tournament’s third seeds needed to send this match the full distance, as they quickly wrapped up each of their service games.

Martins was again broken at the beginning of the next set, but this time Gleason was also broken two games later, as the 2023 US Open champions raced out to a 4-0 lead.

There was no stopping Routliffe and Dabrowski from there, knowing that the victory was in sight, they played with more freedom and smiles on their faces as they went through the points.

When serving for the match Dabrowski fell behind 0-30, but a couple of great shots from the Canadian ended that jeopardy and on match point Martins couldn’t get back a sliced volley to her backhand.

In the third round Routliffe and Dabrowski will play against Nicole Melichar-Martinez from the United States and Spain’s Cristina Bucsa.