In a terrific match that was a fitting climax to the WTA Tour Finals, Erin Routliffe and Gaby Dabrowski have won the right to be known as the best doubles pair in the world. Unbeaten in their three round robin matches, including a win over group favourites and Olympic gold medallists Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini, Routliffe and Dabrowski then won their semi-final over Nicole Melichar-Martinez and Ellen Perez, who had beaten them at the same stage in Cancun a year earlier. They then faced tournament favourites Katerina Siniakova and Taylor Townsend, to whom they had lost in the Wimbledon final.
As had happened in all their earlier matches, Dabrowski lost her serve in her opening game, but Townsend and Siniakova were also broken when they served for the first time. Dabrowski lost her second game as well, and they looked to be heading for a tie-break until Routliffe and Dabrowski took points off Siniakova to go to deuce and a first set point. Routliffe got the deciding point back in play, and Dabrowski smashed away a volley to end the set after 51 minutes.
Siniakova lost her first service game in the second set as well, but hit the shot of the match in the next game, an incredible backhand winner that simply skimmed along and over the net from an impossible angle to break Dabrowski’s serve again. Townsend was lucky to win her next game, having to save a break point before winning the decider with a cross-court backhand that hit the net cord and fell over. Siniakova completed a dreadful serving day when she was broken for the fourth time in five games, losing this one to love, and that left Dabrowski serving for the title.
A fabulous soft backhand drop volley from Routliffe gave them four Championship points, but they lost the first three before Siniakova slammed her forehand return of the deciding point into the net to end the match after an hour and 34 minutes. The final score was 7-5, 6-3. In a match where she was clearly the top performer, it was nice for the television commentators to confirm that by nominating Routliffe as the MVP in the match. It was only the second title together this year for her and Dabrowski, having won Nottingham before their Wimbledon defeat, although Routliffe did also win in Cincinnati with Asia Muhammad.
The full match report is free for everyone to read.