The culmination of a week’s hard work in Riyadh saw a clash of unbeaten teams when Erin Routliffe and Gaby Dabrowski took on Katerina Siniakova and Taylor Townsend for the doubles title at the WTA Finals in Riyadh, the match being a replay of the final at Wimbledon earlier in the year. Despite being the bottom seeds for the event, Siniakova and Townsend were the warm favourites, as they had been since qualifying, but that wasn’t going to affect how their opponents played.
One thing which has hindered the second seeds this week has been the fact that Dabrowski has lost her opening service game in every match, and the final would be no exception. Siniakova hit a beautiful cross-court backhand return into the tramlines, and followed that with an easy forehand winner before Dabrowski dumped a forehand into the net. The left-handed Townsend went next, and this time it was Routliffe who got her team underway with two lovely cross-court forehand volleys before two shots from Siniakova landed in the net.
She and Townsend did hit fabulous cross-court backhand returns of consecutive serves in the next game from Routliffe, but a forehand volley from Dabrowski finished the first hold of the afternoon. Siniakova’s backhand was on display again during her own first game, with another fabulous cross-court winner, but Townsend swung a similar shot wide to give away the first deuce in the match. Siniakova missed her first serve on the deciding point, and a huge return of the second from Routliffe forced Townsend to hit a backhand volley into the net.
Pretty well all of Routliffe’s major mistakes in the match happened in the next game, with three poor volleys going over the baseline as Dabrowski got broken to love. Dabrowski hit a fabulous backhand return into the tramlines off Townsend in the next game, with the lefty slider serve looking for all money as though it had beaten the Canadian, and a double fault from the American gave away another deuce. Her serve to Dabrowski on the deciding point was much better, with the latter’s lobbed forehand return landing just over the baseline.
Routliffe then had another comfortable hold before starting Siniakova’s next game with a beautiful forehand return down the tramlines. Routliffe produced the standout shot when Dabrowski served as well, this one being a fabulous cross-court forehand volley, while Townsend joined the party with a gorgeous cross-court forehand lob onto the sideline as she held in turn.
Routliffe had another comfortable hold, and that left Siniakova serving to stay in the set. A fantastic rally between the Czech and the New Zealander at 40-15 saw Routliffe triumphant, slotting a forehand volley between her opponents, and a beautiful backhand return from Dabrowski took them to deuce and a first set point. Siniakova again missed her first serve, and another great return from Routliffe saw the ball loop back to let Dabrowski smash away the winning volley to end the set after 51 minutes.
Dabrowski was up 40-0 to start the second set before Routliffe hit a forehand volley into the net. She found the net again at the end of a great rally on the next point, and a smash from Townsend took them to deuce. I had visions of another lost opening service game, but Siniakova hit a backhand into the net to let Dabrowski hold. Townsend then held to love, the only time that anyone managed that in the match, before Siniakova ended a great rally with a beautiful backhand winner through the middle of the court.
That meant Routliffe was facing a break point, but another great serve forced Siniakova’s forehand return into the net, and Dabrowski won the deciding point with an inside-out backhand volley. Townsend started Siniakova’s next game with two dreadful volleys before Routliffe finished a fantastic rally with Siniakova by punching away a lovely cross-court forehand volley, and the Czech was then forced to hit a cross-court backhand wide to get broken to love.
If Townsend’s volleys had been awful, I don’t know how you could describe Dabrowski’s shot to lose the first point on her own serve, her overhead forehand slice flying away into the crowd at cow corner. Townsend was then forced into a backhand error before hitting a beautiful cross-court backhand return into the tramlines, and another poor volley from Dabrowski went long to give away a break point. Another great rally came next, and there was no doubt that Siniakova’s unbelievable angled backhand winner that just skimmed over the net to end it was the shot of the match.
The best rally of the day came when Townsend served next, lasting for twelve shots before Dabrowski won the point with a beautiful inside-out forehand volley. Townsend lost another fantastic rally three points later when she was forced to hit a backhand volley into the net, and then copped a time violation warning from umpire Juan Zhang. She calmly saved the break point with an ace down the middle to Dabrowski, and won the deciding point with a cross-court backhand that hit the net cord and fell safely over the other side.
Townsend hit a fabulous inside-out forehand return off Routliffe in the next game, but the New Zealander held again to remain the only player not to be broken. Siniakova, on the other hand, saw her dreadful serving day continue as she again lost her serve to love, Dabrowski finishing the game with an easy backhand winner down the tramlines. Siniakova and Townsend had won just one of her nine second serves, and the break meant that Dabrowski would be serving for the title.
Unforced errors from Townsend and Siniakova were followed by a fabulous soft backhand drop volley from Routliffe to give her team four Championship points, but Dabrowski lost the first when forced to hit a backhand volley into the net. An easy backhand volley down the tramlines from Siniakova saved the second, and she hit a nice inside-out forehand return of the next serve. Nobody could believe that Dabrowski let it land in the tramlines and race away to save the third match point, as it was never going long, so they went to deuce and a deciding point.
Siniakova took this one as well, but she dumped her forehand return into the net to end the match after an hour and 34 minutes. The final score was 7-5, 6-3, and Routliffe’s reaction to the final shot was absolutely priceless, jumping in the air with a squeal of delight before sinking to her knees in disbelief. The win gives her a set of WTA titles at every level, this one being worth 1500 points to go with Cincinnati (1000), Zhengzhou (500) and four 250 titles. It also moves her nearly 500 points closer to Siniakova in the doubles rankings, although the latter’s 1365 point margin ensures that she will remain safely on top of the ladder for quite some time yet.