This morning’s first match at the WTA Tour finals was a repeat of the US Open women’s doubles final, with Erin Routliffe and Gaby Dabrowski playing Laura Siegemund and Vera Zvonareva in conditions that couldn’t have been much more different. Instead of the completely enclosed stadium in New York, safe from the pouring rain outside, they were exposed to the elements in Cancun, with extremely strong winds gusting continuously across the court, and it made for a very trying time for all the players.
Zvonareva held serve comfortably to start the match, and Dabrowski held to love, even if all were on second serves. Dabrowski was right into the action when Siegemund served, hitting a fabulous backhand return down the singles sideline to win the second point, and ending a great rally with a beautiful smash to bring up the first break points of the match. They didn’t even need to try that hard to convert it, because Siegemund sent a forehand wide to lose the game.
Routliffe had a poor service game, her four unforced errors enough to give the break straight back when she finished a great rally after 15 shots with a backhand into the net. Siegemund hit a beautiful cross-court backhand volley to start Zvonareva’s second game, but a lovely cross-court forehand volley from Dabrowski and a double fault were enough to take the Russian to deuce. Routliffe will want to erase her next shot from the memory banks, as she swung a huge cross-court forehand into the stands.
Dabrowski got some first serves in play as she held again, but Siegemund had another poor service game. Routliffe made up for her error a few minutes earlier when she smashed away a volley to secure break points, and then hit a huge return of serve straight at Zvonareva, who could only watch as her volley in self-defence sailed back over the baseline.
Routliffe’s second service game was a far cry from her first, and there wasn’t much doubt that it was the best game of the match. She started with a beautiful overhead volley before Siegemund’s cross-court backhand return of serve went wide. A great rally on the next point finished when Routliffe hit a forehand into the net, but that was followed by the shot of the match, an unreal overhead volley from Dabrowski that went sideways across the court. An incredible 14 shot rally came next, ending with a fantastic cross-court backhand volley from Siegemund, but a great serve on the final point saw the German’s forehand return go into the net.
Dabrowski was now serving for the set, but she ended another great rally by hitting an overhead cross-court volley wide to give away a break point. She saved that with a fabulous cross-court backhand volley, and Zvonareva’s inside-out backhand return of the deciding point went wide to end the set after 44 minutes.
Something you very rarely see is a net camera getting a direct hit, but that was what happened at the start of the second set when one of Erin Routliffe’s returns of Zvonareva’s serve nailed it, and it took two or three minutes before umpire Pierre Bacchi and the electronics technician were sure that it was safely back in place and still transmitting. The replay of the hit from that camera’s perspective was certainly interesting! Zvonareva held serve to love, and Routliffe went next. Zvonareva hit a beautiful backhand volley to win the fourth point, but Routliffe gave away a deuce when she dumped a forehand volley into the net. There was a fantastic 15 shot rally on the deciding point, and it was Dabrowski who finished it with a comfortable inside-out forehand winner.
The Canadian then hit a great overhead backhand volley into Zvonareva to bring up yet another break point against Siegemund, but her return of the next serve went into the net. Routliffe safely returned the deciding point, and this time it was Zvonareva who made an error when she hit a backhand volley into the net. Dabrowski had a weird start to the next game, being called for a foot fault by the electronic line calling on both her first and second serves. They would have been faults anyway, with one into the net and the other going wide, but I can’t remember ever seeing anyone get called twice on the same point. A forehand winner through the middle from Zvonareva brought up a third successive deuce, but a straightforward inside-out forehand volley from Routliffe ensured the hold of serve.
Zvonareva then held to love before hitting a beautiful forehand return down the tramlines off Routliffe, but that was the only point in the game which went to the receivers. Siegemund’s nightmare day continued when she lost her serve for the fourth time in a row, but this time she couldn’t even win one point. That meant Dabrowski would be looking to serve out, and a fabulous backhand volley from Routliffe to end another great rally meant that her team had four match points. Dabrowski blew the first two with double faults before being forced to hit a forehand into the net, and she got called for another foot fault on her first serve of the deciding point. The second serve went safely to Zvonareva, and hopefully by now you’ve all seen the video that I posted earlier of the utterly insane 20 shot rally on this final point. You can see the ball jerking around in the wind, but even that was no excuse for Siegemund smashing it into the net to end the match after an hour and 28 minutes. The final score was 6-4, 6-2.
This win has surely put to bed once and for all any notion that Routliffe and Dabrowski were lucky to win the US Open title. They’ve lost just three matches since then, including the final in Guadalajara, and haven’t looked in the slightest trouble in Cancun – even when Routliffe’s serving has temporarily gone AWOL. Their last round robin match will be against the former world number one pair of Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova on Saturday morning.