Routliffe and Dabrowski edged out in tight WTA Finals clash

Erin Routliffe and Gaby Dabrowski have lost a tight battle in their second pool match at the WTA Finals in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

The 2025 US Open champions went down 6-4 7-6(3) to Taylor Townsend from the United States and the Czech Republic’s Katerina Siniakova, in a match that took just over an hour and a half to complete.

As is often the case when these two teams go up against each other, the outcome of the match was determined by small moments.

Each team had just one break point in the opening set, but the difference being that Townsend and Siniakova were able to win theirs. 

In the second set Routliffe and Dabrowski held a 5-2 lead, with the Kiwi and Canadian managing to get a break of serve against Siniakova.

But Routliffe was unable to serve out the set at 5-3 and when the set eventually went to a tiebreak, the No 2 seeds prevailed. 

The result avenged Townsend and Siniakova’s loss to Routliffe and Dabrowski in the US Open final in September.

“We worked really hard the last few days in practice,” Townsend said in her on-court interview after the match. 

“We compiled all the data from the matches that we've played before, and came out and just wanted to execute on the game plan.”

This loss is not the end of the road for Routliffe and Dabrowski, but the No 3 seeds will need to defeat Timea Babos from Hungary and Luisa Stefani in their their remaining pool match to advance to the semifinals.