Routliffe and Muhammad through to Round 2 in Australian Open
Erin Routliffe and her new partner Asia Muhammad called on their experience as doubles specialists to win their first round at the Australian Open in Melbourne against two highly ranked singles players today.
The New Zealander and Muhammad, her new partner from the United States, beat Linda Noskova of Czech Republic and Rebecca Sramkova of Slovakia 6-4 6-4. Noskova, 21, with a world singles ranking of 13, won her first-round singles at the tournament, while Sramkova’s current WTA ranking of 73 also earned her entry in the main draw where she lost in the first round to Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia.
It was a solid performance from Routliffe and Muhammad, the 6th seeds, who are good friends off court and teamed up as partners at the end of last year. They had played together previously in 2024 when the won the women’s doubles title at Cincinnati with Routliffe’s regular partner Gaby Dabrowski off the tour for health reasons.
Routliffe says it felt really good to win their first round. “We are enjoying playing together and absolutely stoked with the win today.”
Routliffe and Muhammad started strongly holding serve and then securing an early break in the third game of the first set on Noskova’s serve for a 2-1 lead which they further cemented with two service holds to go 4-2 up. They again put pressure on the Noskova service game which she managed to hold. Muhammad’s serve was broken in the eighth game of the set, but she and Routliffe quickly regrouped and responded breaking back on the Sramkova serve. Up 5-4, it was fitting that Routliffe, whose serve and net play were strong from the outset, served out the set on the first set point.
The second set went much the same as the first with Routliffe and Muhammad breaking the Noskova serve in the first game of the set. Muhammad survived a game break point and with Routliffe dominant at the net they took the second game. The match then stayed on serve until the sixth game when Noskova and Sramkova broke back to take the set to 3-3. At 4-all, Routliffe and Muhammad attacked the Noskova serve, breaking for a 5-4 lead. With Muhammad serving for the match, their opponents saved one match point before Routliffe and Muhammad showed their touch at the net, each playing a stunning volley to take the match.
In the second round Routliffe and Muhammad will play Shuko Aoyama, a doubles specialist from Japan, and Magda Linette of Poland who beat Alexandra Eala of the Phillipines and Ingrid Martins of Brazil in a tough three set encounter in the first round. Linette will play her second round of the singles championship tonight after she upset Emma Navarro, the 15th seed, from the United States in the first round.
Routliffe, who has seven titles including two US Open doubles title, made the semi-finals in both the women’s doubles with Dabrowski, and the mixed doubles with compatriot, Michael Venus at last year’s Australian Open.
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