Routliffe, Dabrowski start with a win in Riyadh

Erin Routliffe and Gaby Dabrowski came through in a hard fought match against Chan Hao-Ching from Chinese Taipei and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova in their opening match at the WTA Finals in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Routliffe and Dabrowski, who are the No 2 seeds at the season ending tournament, won the match 7-6(6) 6-4 against their seventh seeded opponents.

In the opening game of the match Dabrowski had her serve broken and it wasn’t until the eighth game, on Chan’s serve, that they managed to get the break back, thanks to a Routliffe smash on a third break point. 

The Kiwi/Canadian team had a couple of set points on Chan’s serve a short time later, which they couldn’t convert. 

In the tiebreak, Dabrowski saved a set point with a well placed smash, then at 6-7 on Chan’s serve she overhit a forehand, giving the first set to Routliffe and Dabrowski after 63 minutes. 

On a deciding point deuce at 3-3 on Chan’s serve in the second set, Dabrowski hit a driving volley to put her and Routliffe in a commanding position.

Dabrowski went on to serve for the match at 5-4 and after losing the first point, the next three went in her favour and on the first match point, she angled a volley at the net that Kudermetova couldn’t get back.

Routliffe and Dabrowski have matches against fourth seeds Jasmine Paolini and Sara Errani and also Caroline Dolehide and Desirae Krawczyk (No 5) to come and a win in one of these matches is likely to advance them to the semifinals.