Routliffe, Dabrowski overcome tricky opponents in Beijing

Erin Routliffe and Gaby Dabrowski have powered their way through their first-round match at the China Open in Beijing, defeating Wang Xinyu from China and Chinese Taipei’s Hsieh Su-Wei 7-5 6-2.

Although Routliffe and her Canadian partner are the top seeds in Beijing, they faced a tricky team first up with Hsieh being one of the world’s best-ever doubles players and Wang a top singles player.

However, Routliffe and Dabrowski came through, even though their opponents won three of the five deciding point deuces played over the match that lasted one hour, 33 minutes on Court Brad Drewett.

Routiffe and Dabrowski got a crucial break at 5-5 in the first set and in the second set were about to break Wang and Hsieh twice.

In the second round Routliffe and Dabrowski will play against Olivia Nicholls from Britain and Slovakia’s Tereza Mihalikova.

Meanwhile, Lulu Sun and Japan’s Mokuya Uchijima lost to Timea Babos and Yana Sizikova 6-1 7-6(2) on Sunday. Sun and Uchijima weren’t initially scheduled to play doubles at the China Open, but after a withdrawal made it in on the alternate list.