Routliffe, Dabrowski into Osaka quarterfinals

Top seeds Erin Routliffe and Gaby Dabrowski have won their first-round match at the WTA 250 tournament in Osaka, Japan.

On centre court on Tuesday night the former US Open champions defeated Peangtarn Plipuech from Thailand and Chinese Taipei’s Tsao Chia Yi 6-4 6-3 in just under an hour and a quarter.

Plipuech and Tsao were able to break their opponent’s serve once in each set, however, the unseeded duo had their serve broken five times over the entirety of the match.

In the quarterfinals, Routliffe and Dabrowski will play against the all-Japanese duo of Shuko Aoyama and Eri Hozumi.

After this week, there are only a maximum of two more tournaments Roufliffe and Dabrowski can play in the season, before the year-ending WTA Finals in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, which begins on November 2.

Routliffe and Dabrowski are among the six pairings that have already qualified for the eight-team tournament.

Meanwhile, Lulu Sun has again chosen not to play a tournament this week as she continues to recover from the injury picked up at the US Open.