Routliffe, Dabrowski dominate opening match at Italian Open

Top seeds Erin Routliffe and Gaby Dabrowski have comfortably advanced to the second round at the Italian Open following a 6-4 6-1 win over Monica Niculescu and Katarzyna Piter.

Routliffe and Dabrowski took one hour, 16 minutes on Saturday to defeat the Romanian / Polish team, as after a tight first set, they dominated the second. 

Neither Niculescu nor Piter held serve in the second set, but they were able to pick up a break.

In the second round, Routliffe and her Canadian partner will play against the now Australian Daria Kasatkina and Peyton Stearns from the United States.

The men’s doubles draw in Rome has taken place and it sees Michael Venus and Nikola Mektic up against Rohan Bopanna and Adam Pavlasek in the opening round. Venus and Mektic are the No 6 seeds.

Meanwhile, Lulu Sun, who lost in the second round of the Italian Open to Jasmine Paolini, has entered the WTA 125 tournament in Paris.

By playing at the tournament, Sun gets the chance to pick up more ranking points and get extra matches in ahead of Roland Garros, which begins on May 19.