Routliffe looks to the future after Wimbledon mixed exit

Erin Routliffe says she will leave Wimbledon with positives despite her mixed doubles campaign ending in a 6-4 6-4 defeat alongside Sweden’s Andre Goransson on Saturday.

“We’re upset to lose, we had a lot of opportunities, but I thought it was a pretty high quality match,” Routliffe said after the loss to American Christian Harrison and China’s Zhang Shuai.

“I was pretty happy with the way that I competed, the way I returned. I wish I served a little bit better, but other than that, I was actually quite pleased with my performance.”

The Kiwi-Swedish pairing looked well placed early in the opening set after breaking Harrison’s serve in the second game to open up a 4-1 advantage.

But Harrison and Zhang gradually swung the momentum their way. They broke back on Routliffe’s serve before Zhang escaped from 15-40 down in the next game to keep her team in touch.

The first set featured one of the match’s more unusual moments during a marathon service game from Goransson, when he unexpectedly served underarm to Zhang. Routliffe admitted afterwards it was the first time she had seen a doubles partner try the tactic.

Asked whether she knew it was coming, she replied: “No, he didn’t tell me. Isn’t that funny? I think he was thinking that Shuai was obviously playing really well, and he’s got to change it up.”

Goransson was eventually broken, before Harrison’s served closed out the set 6-4.

The second set followed a similar pattern, with little separating the two teams.

Routliffe produced a gutsy hold at 3-3, saving three break points to keep the set on serve, but Goransson came under pressure at 4-4. After another lengthy game, he double-faulted on the final two points to surrender the decisive break.

Playing on America’s Independence Day, Harrison then served out the match to complete the victory.

Reflecting on the two crucial service games that decided the contest, Routliffe said the margins had been tiny.

“We had a lot of game points, and I feel like they played really well on those game points,” she said.

“It was really long, really close, and it was just those two breaks.”

The defeat ended Routliffe’s Wimbledon campaign and she will now take a short break before beginning the North American hard-court season, with tournaments in Washington DC, Toronto, Cincinnati, Monterrey and the US Open.

She is also hoping to settle on a regular doubles partner after spending much of the season rotating through different teammates.

“I know that I want to play with someone for longer term, so in a perfect world, yeah, I would get a doubles person that was looking to play for the rest of the year with,” Routliffe said.

She said her ranking, 11 in the world, meant there had been no shortage of interest.

“People look at the rankings, look at the seedings, and stuff like that. I’ve been asked a decent amount, I guess. I don’t know what’s normal!”