When the first round-robin match in the Mahahual doubles group at the WTA Tour Finals started with wonderful winners on the first two points, and an ace on the third, I thought we might be in for something special. It didn’t really pan out that way, although there were plenty of highlights later on, with some wonderful rallies sprinkled throughout the match between the US Open champions, Erin Routliffe and Gaby Dabrowski, and the world’s number one pair, Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula.
Gauff served first, and it was she who ended the first point with a beautiful backhand winner down the tramlines before Dabrowski hit a fabulous inside-out forehand return of serve. That was the only point lost in the game, and it was a similar story in the next when Pegula’s beautiful forehand return through the middle of the court was the only point lost by Dabrowski. Routliffe then hit two fabulous forehand returns off Pegula, the first one clipping the net cord and running sideways once it landed, and the second crashing into Gauff’s racquet and giving the teenager no chance to respond.
Dabrowski was then forced to hit a forehand volley into the net to lose Routliffe’s first point, and two double faults in the game gave the American pair a couple of chances to break. The first really great rally followed, ending after 14 shots when Gauff hit a nice inside-out forehand winner to convert the first break point. She then finished her own service game by acing Routliffe for the second time before hitting a beautiful cross-court forehand volley when Dabrowski served next.
Pegula and Routliffe had comfortable holds, and that meant Gauff would be serving for the set. She had lost only two points on serve to that stage, but a double fault gave away break points. She pushed a backhand into the net to give back the break, and Dabrowski held easily to level the scores. It was Pegula’s turn to feel the pressure when a backhand volley from Dabrowski took the score to 15-40, but a cross-court backhand volley from Gauff and a return of serve from Dabrowski which hit the net cord and bounced back took the score to deuce, and Gauff won the deciding point with an overhead backhand volley.
The pressure then went on Routliffe to hold and force the tie-break, but the only point she lost was when the automatic line calling adjudged her to have made a foot fault on a second serve. She won a good rally on the next point with a nice cross-court forehand volley, and Pegula’s backhand return of the last point landed in the net. The first three points in the tie-break went with serve, but Pegula lost her first when Routliffe won a great short rally with a beautiful forehand volley.
There was a fantastic 14 shot rally on the next point, and Dabrowski should have picked up another mini-break there as well, but her final forehand volley went into the net. Routliffe won both her points, either side of the change of ends, hitting every ball in a great rally on the second of those. An incredible forehand volley from Routliffe forced Pegula to hit a backhand into the net to lose Gauff’s first point, and that gave up four set points. Another forced error from Pegula, this time a forehand volley that went long, gave away Gauff’s second point and ended the set after 49 minutes.
Routliffe had to save a break point in the first game of the second set, and an unreturnable serve to Gauff did the trick, as did one to Pegula on the deciding point. Gauff started and finished the next game with aces to Routliffe, the latter a second serve out wide, but she had also won the second point with a great forehand lob. The longest rally of the match came on the first point when Dabrowski served next, a fantastic 16 shot exchange where I’m pretty sure that Dabrowski hit every ball on her side of the net. It ended when Pegula was forced into a backhand error, and Dabrowski went on to hold to love, the only time that anyone would manage the feat in the match.
She then started the next game from Pegula by just tapping away a backhand winner at the net before hitting an easy backhand return of a second serve down the singles sideline. A forehand volley from Routliffe took the score to 0-40, and Pegula followed an ace to the Canadian with a backhand volley to win a fantastic rally. There was a great rally on the next point as well, but this time it was Routliffe on hand to smash away the winning volley. Routliffe then held to consolidate the break, although Gauff was a bit unlucky when her forehand hit the net cord and bounced back at the end of a great rally on the final point. There was nothing unlucky about the three double faults in a row that she served next up, and a backhand volley from Dabrowski to end another good short rally secured a second break.
That was just as well, because she then got broken when serving for the match. After forced errors earlier in the game, she tried an ambitious cross-court lob, only to se the ball drift well wide. Pegula then had to hold to keep her team alive, and she managed that well enough after Gauff hit the shot of the match, an incredible inside-out backhand volley that she basically steered along the net. Now it was Routliffe’s turn to serve for the match, but there was a moment of pure comedy when a shot from Gauff hit Dabrowski’s racquet so perfectly that it stuck in the gap where the handle joins the frame – and she couldn’t get it out! I’ve seen it happen before, but it’s certainly not something you expect. What was worse here was that it gave Gauff and Pegula break points, but they each hit unforced errors to take the score to deuce, giving Routliffe and Dabrowski a match point. There was another great rally on the deciding point, and it was Dabrowski who finished it off with a fabulous inside-out backhand winner to end the match after an hour and 25 minutes. The final score was 7-6 (2), 6-3.