First round win for Routliffe, Dabrowski in Tokyo

Erin Routliffe and Gaby Dabrowski have won their first-round match in Tokyo as they continue their build up for their final tournament of the year at the WTA Finals in Saudi Arabia in November.

On Thursday in the Japanese capital, the Kiwi/ Canadian team defeated local pairing Nao Hibino and Miyu Kato 6-3 6-3.

Routliffe and Dabrowski only had their serve broken once in the match, in the second set, and it was the only break point they had against them for the entire contest.

Otherwise, this was a straightforward victory from Routliffe and Dabrowski and a positive from it was that Routliffe was able to play again after having to withdraw from last week’s tournament in Osaka at the semifinal stage because of a back injury.

In their next match in Tokyo, Routliffe and Dabrowski, who are the top seeds, will play against Peangtarn Plipuech from Thailand and Chinese Taipei’s Tsao Chia Yi.

Meanwhile, Lulu Sun, who hasn’t played a match since the China Open in late September because of the injury picked up at the US Open, has posted pictures on Instagram of her training in Hong Kong.

The Hong Kong Open is a WTA 250-level tournament and begins on Monday.