Routliffe, Dabrowski bow out in quarterfinals in Wuhan

Erin Routliffe and Gaby Dabrowski have lost their quarterfinal match against Anna Danilina and Irina Khromacheva 6-4 6-3 at the Wuhan Open.

Played late Friday night on Centre Court at the Optics Valley International Tennis Centre, Routliffe and Dabrowski put in a strong performance, but more of the key moments went the way of the duo from Kazakstan and Russia.

In the first set Danilina and Khromacheva got the only break, while in the second set, Routliffe and Dabrowski broke their opponents once, but had their serve broken on three occasions.

Danilina and Khromacheva served well throughout the match, only losing four points when they got their first serve.

As top seeds, Routliffe and Dabdrowski were given a bye in the first round in Wuhan and had a nail-biting 0-6 6-4 11-9 win over the all-Chinese team of Wang Yafan and Xu Yifan in the second round.

Despite this loss, Routliffe will remain at No 2 in the world rankings when they are next updated.

She and her Canadian partner, Dabrowski, had good news this week, with confirmation they have qualified for the WTA Finals in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia next month.

Routliffe and Dabrowski played in the WTA Finals for the first time together last year and made it through to the semifinals at the season-ending tournament, before losing 10-6 in the third set super tiebreak to Nicole Melichar-Martinez and Ellen Perez.