Nicole Melichar-Martinez served first when she and Ellen Perez played Erin Routliffe and Gaby Dabrowski in this morning’s first semi-final at the WTA Tour Finals in Cancun, the early part of the programme seeing less wind than the players have had to put up with earlier in the week. Melichar-Martinez lost her first two points, but two unforced errors from each of her opponents allowed her to hold serve. Melichar-Martinez then hit a fabulous forehand return down the tramlines to win Dabrowski’s third point after the Canadian had lost a great rally on her first when forced into an error on a backhand volley. A stunning backhand return down the singles sideline by the left-handed Perez took them to deuce, and Routliffe was forced to hit a forehand volley into the net to lose a great short rally on the deciding point.
Perez was in all sorts of trouble when a huge forehand return from Routliffe took the score to 0-40, but a smash from Melichar-Martinez saved the first break point before Dabrowski was forced to hit a forehand into the net to end the best rally of the match after 14 shots. A smash from Perez got her back to deuce, and Routliffe’s backhand return of the deciding point went long. Things finally clicked for Dabrowski when she hit a fabulous inside-out backhand volley to win Routliffe’s second serve, with the New Zealander going on to hold serve. Melichar-Martinez lost only the first game point when she served next, acing Routliffe wide out to finish the game, but Dabrowski had another horror turn at the line.
This time she couldn’t even get to deuce, with her beautiful cross-court forehand winner the only point she gained before a foot fault like we saw on Saturday ended the game. That left Perez serving for the set, but she got into nearly as much trouble as in her first game when she pulled a cross-court forehand shot wide. Again Melichar-Martinez came to the rescue with a smash, and Dabrowski’s next backhand return landed just over the baseline. The deuce also meant that Melichar-Martinez and Perez had a set point, and Routliffe’s return of the deciding point went long to end the set after 29 minutes.
Routliffe was in more trouble when she lost her serve in the opening game of the second set, but worse was to follow when the same happened to Dabrowski after she had hit a fabulous cross-court forehand winner when Perez served second. Routliffe then hit a stunning backhand return down the tramlines to bring up break points against Melichar-Martinez, and Perez dumped a forehand into the net to give back one of the breaks. Routliffe’s second service game was far better than her first, as she lost only one point before return errors from each opponent allowed her to hold serve.
That was the story through the next rotation of serve as well, Routliffe finishing her next game by acing Melichar-Martinez down the middle. She and Dabrowski were still a break down, and that meant Perez was now serving for the match. Melichar-Martinez hit a beautiful inside-out forehand volley to win the first point, but she and Perez hit unforced errors to give the game away, the Australian finishing with a poor forehand into the net. Dabrowski then finished her next game with a huge smash to hold serve, and the seventh seeds were in front for the first time in the match, and Melichar-Martinez would have to hold to force a tie-break. Perez produced the first highlight when she won the second point with a beautiful cross-court backhand volley, but she was outdone by a fabulous angled forehand drop volley from Dabrowski to end a great short rally.
A stunning forehand return down the tramlines from Routliffe took the score to 40-30, but Dabrowski gave away the chance of another break when her inside-out forehand return of Melichar-Martinez’ second serve sailed over the baseline. That took them to a tie-break, and it’s a while since I’ve seen one at this level that was so one-sided. The first return from Melichar-Martinez went into the net, and Perez double faulted to lose her first point before dumping another forehand into the net to lose her second.
Routliffe gave back one mini-break when forced into an error, but the same happened to Perez when Melichar-Martinez served, and they changed ends two mini-breaks down. That became three when Melichar-Martinez hit a backhand into the net to give Routliffe and Dabrowski five set points, and a great serve from Routliffe saw Perez’ forehand return thud into the net. The set had taken 48 minutes.
Melichar-Martinez got the first mini-break in the decider when she hit a beautiful forehand return down the tramlines off Routliffe, and the advantage got doubled after they changed ends when Dabrowski double faulted. Perez and Routliffe each won both their points, but the deficit was reduced to one break when Perez was forced to hit an overhead cross-court backhand volley wide to lose Melichar-Martinez’ first serve. That took them to the next change of ends, and the deficit was wiped when Perez had no time to react to a return from Dabrowski because she was standing almost on top of the net. What came next, though, especially given the situation in the tie-break, had to be the shot of the match, with Perez hitting a fantastic forehand return down the line off Dabrowski to grab another mini-break.
A huge return from Melichar-Martinez could only be parried into the net by Routliffe, and suddenly the eighth seeds had three match points. It was all over straight away, Melichar-Martinez hitting a nice forehand volley away from her opponents, with the final score being 6-1, 6-7 (1), 10-6. The match had taken an hour and 37 minutes. With Laura Siegemund and Vera Zvonareva upsetting the unbeaten Storm Hunter and Elise Mertens in the other semi-final, it will be the two group runners-up who will contest tomorrow’s final. What really cost Routliffe and Dabrowski was the latter’s second serve. Usually fairly reliable, today they were able to win just two points out of 12 attempts, compared with seven out of ten on Routliffe’s.
Despite the disappointment associated with this loss, Routliffe can only be overjoyed by how her season ended. A poor start with Alicja Rosolska, and a horrendous run of outs when her resumed partnership with Alexa Guarachi failed almost completely, must have left her wondering just what she could do to salvage her year, even though her one-off reunion with Aldila Sutjiadi had taken them to the title in Austin.
The decision to approach Dabrowski, also on her own after the end of her fruitful partnership with Luisa Stefani, has turned out to be inspired. They certainly had hiccups when they started out but, for me, the turning point was the match in Cleveland where they beat Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova, for so long the benchmark in women’s doubles. It didn’t matter that both were coming off illness and injury, and didn’t play particularly well. For me, it was the way that Routliffe and Dabrowski went about winning the match that gave me more than just a bit of hope that this partnership could really work. From there on, as they say, the rest is history.
A win in the US Open; runners-up in Guadalajara; first round losses in the next two events, only to win a desperately-needed title in Zhengzhou to get to Cancun; and then unbeaten in the round-robin before today’s loss ended their dreams of glory. That is a third trimester that any team in history would be happy to take, and the icing on the cake for Routliffe is a new career-high ranking. If, by a cruel twist of fate, Laura Siegemund and Vera Zvonareva beat Melichar-Martinez and Perez tomorrow, Routliffe’s ranking will go to number 11. If the result goes the other way, she will move to number 10. Either way, it’s a level that no New Zealand woman has ever previously achieved.