Erin Routliffe and Aldila Sutjiadi are no strangers to doubles finals, having won an ITF title together at Bonita Springs, and others with different partners, before finally uniting for the first time at the top level in Washington over the last week. Their opponents, Andreja Klepač and Makoto Ninomiya, have won plenty of titles as well, but Klepač has only recently returned to the tour after taking time out to start a family (and her young daughter would steal the show when she accompanied her mother during the presentations).
Routliffe served first, but gave away a deuce when she double faulted. Klepač got the deciding point back in play, but Sutjiadi’s inside-out forehand volley was the winning shot. Klepač was taken to deuce as well when Routliffe made an easy volley at the net to interrupt a rally between Klepač and Sutjiadi, and Sutjiadi again took the deciding point, this time with a fabulous backhand return that landed just inside the baseline.
She held to love next up, but Ninomiya copied the first two by going to deuce. In her case she gave it away by pulling a forehand wide, but Sutjiadi’s inside-out forehand on the deciding point went over the baseline. She hit four winning volleys as Routliffe held again, and then saw Ninomiya hit beautiful forehand and backhand volleys to get Klepač to 40-30, but the Slovenian hit a backhand over the baseline to give away another deuce. This time, though, a terrific serve to Sutjiadi forced her forehand return to go into the net.
Three lovely winners from Klepač in the next game took Sutjiadi to 15-40, and a mishit smash from Routliffe gave back the early break, with Ninomiya then holding to love to level the scores. The Japanese player hit the shot of the match in the next game, a fantastic backhand chip from wide out which went over the end of the net to land in the end of the tramline. Two forehand volleys into the net from Sutjiadi took the score to deuce, where Routliffe won the good rally on the deciding point with a forehand volley into the right-hand corner.
Klepač was now serving to keep her team in the set, but dropped back to 30-30 when she hit a cross-court backhand wide. Routliffe then hammered a forehand return straight at Ninomiya, with the Japanese player turning as she dived out of the way to see the ball catch the back half of the baseline. That gave the second seeds two set points, but Klepač hit a backhand into the net to lose the first. The set had taken 40 minutes.
Routliffe finished the opening game of the second set with a second serve ace out wide to Klepač, who hit a fabulous forehand winner down the line on the way to holding serve in turn. Sutjiadi finished her first game with a terrific forehand lob into the right-hand corner, but Ninomiya made two forehand unforced errors before losing her serve with a double fault. Routliffe then aced her down the middle to hold serve again.
Sutjiadi hit a beautiful forehand return through the left side of the court off Klepač before the latter hit a lovely forehand winner down the tramlines to give herself a game point. Another lovely return from Sutjiadi, this one straight into Ninomiya’s racquet, took them to deuce, and the deciding point saw the best rally in the match. The fantastic 15 shot exchange ended with Ninomiya slipping onto the ground as she was forced into a forehand error, and the break left Sutjiadi serving for the title.
Klepač’s second return error gave the second seeds four Championship points. Routliffe missed the first when she was forced to hit a backhand volley into the net, but Klepač erred again when she pulled her final backhand return wide. That ended the match after an hour and eleven minutes, the final score being 6-4, 6-1. It’s Routliffe’s 13th title at Tour level, a tally which includes two US Opens and a WTA Tour Finals crown, while Sutjiadi was completing just her third on the main tour, although she also has five WTA 125 titles.