Erin Routliffe and Gaby Dabrowski had come from behind to beat Timea Babos and Luisa Stefani in both their previous meetings this year, and had then gone on to win both those tournaments, but it was a different kind of pressure for both teams as they got set for their final round robin match at the WTA Tour Finals in Riyadh. With both teams having won one and lost one of their first two matches, the winner of this encounter would progress to the semi-finals, while the losers would be packing their bags and heading home.
Babos served first and started with a beautiful forehand winner down the tramlines, but Routliffe countered that with a lovely angled forehand winner before Babos was forced to hit a forehand into the net. A nice forehand volley from Routliffe to end a good short rally gave her team break points and, although she was forced into a return error to lose the first of those, Babos gave away the second when she hit a backhand into the net.
Routliffe gave away a deuce when she double faulted in the next game, but won the deciding point by steering an overhead volley into the left tramline. Stefani then held to love before Dabrowski started with consecutive aces, but she, too, ended up at deuce after hitting a forehand wide. Once again the deciding point went the way of the third seeds, with Babos’ forehand return flying back over the baseline.
There was all sorts of drama in the next game, and it all came from Babos as the Hungarian served for the second time. She started with an easy backhand winner down the tramlines, but lost her second point when her backhand went straight up into the large four-sided video screen mounted in the roof. She then hit consecutive double faults, slamming her racquet to the ground after the second before kicking it away, but she did get back to deuce before losing the deciding point when her backhand volley caught the net cord and carried on to land over the baseline.
Dabrowski hit a beautiful inside-out backhand volley to help Routliffe hold serve again and, although Stefani held to love for the second time, Dabrowski was still going to be serving for the set. Routliffe let the ball bounce before smashing away the winner to end a great rally on the first point, which Babos cancelled out by hitting a gorgeous cross-court backhand winner into the tramlines. She gave away set points with a poor forehand return, though, and Routliffe converted the first of those with a fabulous inside-out forehand volley into the tramlines. The set had taken 33 minutes.
Stefani made it three consecutive holds to love when she started the second set, with Routliffe and Babos holding slightly less easily before Dabrowski stepped up to complete the first rotation. Forced errors from herself and Routliffe dropped them back to deuce, but Routliffe won the deciding point with an inside-out backhand volley.
The next game had a bit of everything, starting with Routliffe smashing a volley into the net to end a good rally. Dabrowski cancelled that out with a fabulous inside-out forehand volley into the tramlines before Babos hit a backhand into the net to end a great short rally. Routliffe was then forced to hit a backhand volley into the net before hitting the shot of the match, a fantastic forehand lob down the right-had singles sideline, and Dabrowski completed the break with a beautiful cross-court forehand winner to end another great rally.
Routliffe gave away a break point when forced into a forehand error at the end of another great rally, but an inside-out overhead volley from Dabrowski got them to deuce. There was another great rally on the deciding point, but this one went the wrong way for the third seeds when Dabrowski hit her final backhand wide. Babos hit a fabulous cross-court forehand lob to give herself game points next up, but Stefani hit a backhand volley over the baseline to give away another deuce. A good return from Dabrowski forced Babos into another error, and that made it three lost games in a row.
Three became four when Dabrowski served, Babos bringing up a break point with a beautiful backhand winner down the tramlines and converting it with a fabulous inside-out forehand return. It was back to business as usual for Stefani when she held again, but her beautiful backhand return down the singles sideline off Routliffe was followed by two aces from the New Zealander, the one to Stefani coming off a second serve.
Dabrowski finished off that game with a straightforward backhand volley, but it was her partner who created more chances to break when she hit a fabulous forehand return down the singles sideline off Babos. The latter responded with another lovely cross-court forehand lob to take them to deuce, and Routliffe’s backhand return of the deciding point flew back over the baseline.
The fantastic rally on Dabrowski’s second point ended with a fabulous cross-court forehand volley from Babos, and a beautiful inside-out backhand return into the tramlines from Stefani took the score to 0-40. That gave the seventh seeds four set points, but again one was enough. Routliffe was forced to hit a backhand volley into the net, and that completed the set after 54 minutes.
The match tie-break started with two held serves, but the receivers had the upper hand in just about every point after that. The first of those was the incredible rally of the match on Routliffe’s second point, which ended after 15 shots when she was forced to hit a backhand volley over the baseline. They got the mini-break back when Babos lost a great short rally on her own serve by hitting a cross-court backhand volley just fractionally wide, but Routliffe gave away another when she hit a forehand volley into the net on the last point before they changed ends.
She did win Dabrowski’s second point with a beautiful backhand volley, with the Canadian then smashing away a forehand winner off Stefani after letting the ball bounce first. That put them back on serve, but disaster struck when she and Routliffe each hit poor forehand volleys to lose both the New Zealander’s points. Routliffe got one mini-break back with a cross-court forehand volley off Babos, but her team was still one mini-break down as they changed ends for the second time.
Babos broke the sequence of lost points with a fabulous inside-out backhand winner into the tramlines, and Dabrowski gave away four match points when she lost her own first serve by hitting a cross-court backhand into the net. Routliffe ended a good short rally on the second point when she had to hit an awkward overhead volley, and that ended in the net as well to complete the match after an hour and 41 minutes. The final score was 2-6, 7-5, 10-5.
That’s the end of the regular season for Routliffe and Dabrowski, but the New Zealander will travel to Poland for the Billie Jean King Cup play-offs against the home team and Romania at the end of next week. Win both of those ties, which will be very difficult but not impossible with Routliffe and Lulu Sun both in good form, and New Zealand will progress to the qualifiers in 2026, with a chance to play at home as the format returns to the same used by the Davis Cup.