Routliffe, Dabrowski back with a bang in Stuttgart

Erin Routliffe and Gaby Dabrowski are through to the semifinals of the WTA 500 tournament in Stuttgart, Germany.

The duo reunited following Routliffe’s title-winning run with Jelena Ostapenko in Charleston, USA, two weeks ago, had an impressive 6-4 6-2 win over Alexandra Panova from Russia and Hungary’s Fanny Stollar in the quarterfinals.

This was Routliffe and Dabrowski’s first match together for this European clay court season, having been given a first round bye in Stuttgart as the tournament’s No 1 seeds. 

They rarely looked troubled against Panova and Stollar, who has previously partnered with  Lulu Sun.

Routliffe and Dabrowski won 72% of the points when they landed their first serve, compared to 48% for their opponents. They also saved five of the six break points they faced, while they broke Panova and Stollar on four occasions during the match.

In the semifinals, Routliffe and Dabrowski will play against Timea Babos from Hungary and Luisa Stefani from Brazil.

Regardless of how results go in Stuttgart this week, Routliffe will remain No 3 in the world rankings, behind Katerina Siniakova and Taylor Townsend. 

Meanwhile, in the quarterfinals of the ATP 500 tournament in Barcelona, Michael Venus and Nikola Mektic lost 6-3 6-4 to the all-British duo of Neal Skupski and Joe Salisbury.