Erin Routliffe and Gaby Dabrowski are the defending doubles champions at the WTA Tour Finals, but their first round-robin match at this year’s event was against a team that they had yet to beat, the young Russian pair of Mirra Andreeva and Diana Shnaider having been victorious at both Doha and Rome earlier in the year. That being said, the third seeds were coming off their second victory in the US Open, although friends’ weddings in different weeks meant that they had only managed to play one match together since that momentous occasion.
The match couldn’t have started better for them, however, with a beautiful cross-court backhand volley from Dabrowski earning them break points before she converted the second with a lovely forehand volley through the middle of the court. Routliffe held comfortably before the left-handed Shnaider finished a hold to love with three unreturnable serves, with Dabrowski winning her own first point with a beautiful forehand volley down the right-hand side of the court. Andreeva did hit a lovely forehand return down the tramlines two points later, but that was the only hiccup in another straightforward service game.
The sequence of comfortable holds continued through the second rotation, but the early break meant that Andreeva was serving to keep her team in the set when she stepped up to the line for the third time. She started by hitting a backhand into the net, and an easy cross-court forehand volley from Routliffe and a double fault meant that she was facing a full complement of set points. She saved the first two by forcing Routliffe into a backhand error before acing her out wide, but it was third time lucky for the third seeds when Dabrowski’s backhand volley flew away off Shnaider’s racquet to end the set after 27 minutes.
Routliffe and Andreeva had straightforward holds to start the second set, the teenager finishing her game by acing Routliffe again after Shnaider had created game points with a beautiful cross-court backhand volley. Andreeva added a gorgeous backhand winner to the highlights package when Dabrowski served, but the Canadian residents came unstuck when Routliffe pulled a smash wide before being forced to hit a forehand volley into the net. That gave away the first deuce in the match, and Andreeva ended a great rally with a gorgeous angled forehand winner to complete the break.
Shnaider held to love for the third time to consolidate the advantage, with Andreeva then starting Routliffe’s next game with a beautiful forehand return down the tramlines. She hit a huge forehand into Routliffe to get a break point, but I couldn’t tell from the different camera angles used in the replays whether it had simply hit her in the back of her left shoulder or had actually caught the side of her head. Either way, she won her next point when Shnaider hit her backhand return into the net, and she forced Andreeva into a return error on the deciding point.
The next four games all went comfortably with serve, the only real highlights being a beautiful forehand winner down the tramlines by Andreeva off Dabrowski and a gorgeous forehand lob down the tramlines by Shnaider to finish her own game. Andreeva weas now serving for the set, but was facing break points after Shnaider was forced to hit a forehand volley into the net. Routliffe missed her next forehand return, and a backhand volley into the net from Dabrowski gave away the deuce. Andreeva hung her head when she lost the deciding point with an overhit backhand lob, as that let Dabrowski and Routliffe back into the set.
Andreeva forced a deuce in the next game with a nice cross-court smash, but it wasn’t enough, as Routliffe won the deciding point with the shot of the match, a fabulous overhead reflex volley into the left tramline from beside the net. From being a break up and serving for the set, the Russians were now defending and trying to stay in the match. Shnaider had been the best server throughout the match, losing just three points to that stage, and she added a beautiful forehand drop volley to the highlights on the way to holding comfortably again, although double faulting to lose the first game point was somewhat of a surprise.
Although there had been a few good rallies up to this point, there hadn’t been anything special, but that would change as soon as the tie-break started. They began with a fantastic 14 shot exchange that Andreeva ended when she left a forehand short of the net, but it got worse when she lost the great rally on her own first point by hitting a forehand over the baseline. There was another fantastic rally on Shnaider’s first point, but Routliffe was forced to hit a backhand long on the twelfth shot to keep the margin to one mini-break as they went to the change of ends.
One became two when Dabrowski took Shnaider’s second point with a beautiful forehand volley down the right-hand side of the court, but the highlight of the entire match was the incredible rally which came next. Shnaider somehow kept the ball in play when she just about disappeared into the back corner on the fourth shot, and it went on for 18 shots before she was forced to hit a cross-court forehand into the net from probably three metres wide at the back of the court.
That gave Routliffe and Dabrowski four match points, but one was enough when Andreeva was forced to hit a backhand lob over the baseline to complete the match after an hour and 23 minutes. The final score was 6-3, 7-6 (2).