Erin Routliffe and Jelena Ostapenko have had a great week in Charleston in their first tournament together and, as top seeds, it was only fitting that they should reach the final. Their opponents were the third seeds, Americans Caroline Dolehide and Desirae Krawczyk, who have had a good run together over the last year, and all indications were that we would be in for a pretty good title fight.
Apart from an overly ambitious lob, Dolehide had a straightforward opening game, which ended when Routliffe finished the first decent rally with an overhit lob of her own. Most matches this week, for whatever reason, have had a distinct paucity of rallies, but this match would make up for that all in one go. Ostapenko served next, and ended a fantastic rally with a nice forehand winner down the left tramline, but Routliffe was then forced into an error before the left-handed Krawczyk completed the first break of serve with an inside-out forehand volley.
There was an even better rally to start Krawczyk’s first game, but she lost that when forced to hit a lob over the baseline. She then hit a cross-court forehand over the baseline before getting broken to love when finishing with two double faults. Routliffe lost just her first point before Dolehide held to love, with both games hosting a great rally. Dolehide hit a beautiful backhand return down the tramlines off Ostapenko, who then gave away a break point by hitting a forehand into the net to end another great rally. Routliffe got them to deuce with an easy cross-court forehand volley, and Krawczyk’s return of the deciding point went into the net.
Krawczyk’s poor serving stats continued when she found the net to lose both her first two points, but picked up her first when Routliffe’s backhand volley found the net as well. It must have been magnetic during this game, as two forehand volleys from Dolehide landed there as well, and the top seeds had the lead for the first time. Routliffe held comfortably again, the highlight in this game being a terrific rally that ended only when Dolehide was forced into a backhand error.
The latter then held easily enough as well, but that still left Ostapenko serving for the set. The only point she lost was to a forehand volley from Dolehide to end another great rally, and Krawczyk dumped a backhand into the net to end the good short rally on the final point. The set had taken 41 minutes.
Dolehide and Ostapenko each lost only one point when they started the second set, with Krawczyk looking like she would finally hold serve when she got to 40-30 in the next game. That last point came from a nice soft overhead backhand volley from Dolehide after Krawczyk had ripped a beautiful cross-court backhand winner into the corner. Routliffe spoilt the party with a cross-court smash, and Krawczyk lost the deciding point when she overhit a forehand to lose another good short rally.
The best rally by far came when Routliffe served next, an incredible 21 shot exchange that ended with a lovely inside-out backhand volley from Ostapenko. Routliffe won the great rally which followed two points later and went on to hold to consolidate the break. The second-to-last point was the first time that she had missed a first serve in the entire match.
Dolehide hit a beautiful cross-court forehand winner on the way to holding serve in her turn, but the highlight for her came in the next game when she hit the shot of the match, a fabulous forehand winner that she pulled back from wide out to land in the tramlines. That didn’t stop Ostapenko from holding serve, but Krawczyk’s record so far didn’t inspire confidence when she stepped up to serve again.
Routliffe hit a beautiful backhand return down the right tramline to win the third point, taking some revenge for being forced to overhit a volley at the end of a great rally on the first point. Dolehide was forced to hit volleys into the net either side of Krawczyk overhitting a backhand, and the left-hander had lost her serve for the fourth time in a row. Routliffe was now serving for the title, but with the luxury of having two breaks of serve up her metaphorical sleeve.
Ostapenko started with beautiful cross-court backhand volley, and Routliffe missed only her second first serve when she hit a forehand volley long. A cross-court forehand from her that went wide gave away a break point, but she got back to deuce with a beautiful inside-out forehand volley. The deciding point was also a first Championship point for Routliffe and Ostapenko, and they celebrated in style when Dolehide was forced to pull a backhand volley wide. The match had lasted an hour and 20 minutes, the final score being 6-4, 6-2.
It’s the ninth doubles title for Routliffe at WTA or higher level, and closes the gap to Taylor Townsend in second place in the doubles rankings to just under a thousand points. Her collaboration with Ostapenko was never likely to be more than one event, as the Latvian will be back with former partner Hsieh Su-wei for the clay tournaments in Madrid and Rome in the lead-up to the French Open.