Barbora Krejcikova served first when she and Katerina Siniakova played Erin Routliffe and Gaby Dabrowski in their last round-robin match at the WTA Tour finals in Cancun yesterday morning, and it’s one of the longest doubles games I’ve seen where no-ad scoring is used. It’s not because every point had a 20 shot rally – it’s because the wind was so strong that Krejcikova needed two or three attempts on every point to toss the ball where she wanted it to go.
The wind was officially around 30 kilometres an hour, but there were gusts that were surely way above that. It affected all the players, but Krejcikova, who is normally the epitome of calm and collected, seemed to have by far the worst time trying to cope with it. There was a good rally on the second point, which Siniakova won with a beautiful backhand volley. There were probably three candidates for shot of the match, all of them hit by Routliffe, and the first of those was a wonderful inside-out backhand return to create a couple of break points in the opening game. She lost the first of those when she hit a backhand volley over the baseline, and Krejcikova aced Dabrowski out wide to win the deciding point.
Dabrowski started with a double fault, but won the next point with a beautiful overhead volley, and aced Siniakova down the middle to win the game. The latter then held comfortably, but Routliffe probably surprised most watching when she held to love. Krejcikova improved vastly on her first game to do the same, Siniakova winning great rallies on both the ad court points with beautiful forehand volleys. Dabrowski copied her partner by holding to love, again acing Siniakova to finish the game, but the first point demonstrated the power of the wind. Krejcikova was beautifully place to hit a regulation backhand volley, but the wind curled the ball two metres in to just about hit her on the full, cramping her shot to such an extent that it ended in the net.
Siniakova gave away a break point when she was forced to hit a backhand into the net. Again, though Routliffe blew the first chance with an unforced error, but she made up for that by winning the deciding point with another candidate for shot of the match, a wonderful backhand winner that died on Siniakova and sneaked under her racquet as she chased it out wide. Routliffe again held to love, winning another great rally on the first point with a nice forehand volley. Krejcikova held safely, despite hitting two double faults, and that left Dabrowski serving for the set. A double fault gave away a break point, but Routliffe saved that with a beautiful backhand volley, and a great short rally on the deciding point ended when Siniakova was forced to swing a cross-court backhand wide. The set had taken 41 minutes.
A double fault from Krejcikova in the opening game of the second set gave away more break points, but Siniakova got them safely to deuce when she smashed away two winning volleys. Routliffe took the deciding point, and put the perfect weight on her forehand return as she hit it a metre or so wide of the sideline, expecting the wind to carry it back into the tramlines – but, for once, nature stayed its hand, and the ball landed outside the court. The highlight in Routliffe’s own game was a beautiful cross-court forehand volley from Siniakova, but Routliffe hit a forehand into the net to also give away break points. Two forehand volleys from Dabrowski got them to deuce, but the Canadian’s attempted forehand lob on the deciding point drifted over the baseline.
The break lasted only five more points, Krejcikova’s second forced error being the one that cost her partner the game. Dabrowski looked to be in real trouble at 0-40, but Siniakova was forced into backhand errors either side of an easy cross-court forehand winner from Dabrowski. The best rally of the match came on the deciding point, and it wasn’t until the 13th shot that Dabrowski was able to smash away the winning volley. Krejcikova held to love, and only a double fault stopped Routliffe from doing the same. Siniakova continued the sequence of successful service games before we saw the only candidate for shot of the match that wasn’t played by Routliffe, a fabulous forehand lob down the tramlines from Krejcikova to end a great rally in Dabrowski’s next game.
Krejcikova went next, hitting a beautiful forehand winner before Dabrowski hit a lovely cross-court backhand volley, but the Czech pair still came out on top. Routliffe continued her great serving, holding to love for the third time in the match, but it was third time unlucky for Siniakova when she lost her serve yet again. This game had Routliffe’s final candidate for shot of the match, a forehand lob down the tramlines which the commentators reckoned was better than Krejcikova’s because she got it to land closer to the baseline.
Siniakova did save the first break point by hitting a beautiful cross-court backhand lob which just cleared the racquets of both Routliffe and Dabrowski, but a fabulous backhand return down the tramlines from Dabrowski completed the break, and left her serving for the match. A smash from Routliffe won the second point, but the Czechs were forced into errors to lose the other three as Dabrowski closed out the match after an hour and 34 minutes. The final score was 6-4, 7-5.