The rematch in Riyadh of the 2024 championship match at the WTA Finals did not go the way of Gabriela Dabrowski and Erin Routliffe. The defending champions lost their second group stage match at the 2025 WTA Finals to Katerina Siniakova and Taylor Townsend on Tuesday morning in straight sets.
Dabrowski and Routliffe are now 1-1 in the group stage after winning their opening match on Sunday.
In what was also a rematch of this year’s US Open final, opportunities were few and far between for both teams. Siniakova and Townsend were just a bit better at taking advantage of their openings, sneaking out the win in two tight sets 6-4, 7-6(3) to move atop the Liezel Huber Group.
Despite the fact that they managed to extend more of Siniakova and Townsend’s service games, Dabrowski and Routliffe only managed one break in the match while getting broken twice. In the end, they lost just six more points in the match.
Servers dominated the opening set, with each team only managing to get a single chance to break. The Canadian-Kiwi duo had their opportunity on Siniakova’s serve in the fourth game but could not convert. When Siniakova and Townsend had a chance on Dabrowski’s serve at 3-3, they made no mistake. With a love-40 opening, the Czech carved a backhand volley down the line to secure what ended up being the decisive break in the opening set.
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Dabrowski and Routliffe finally managed a breakthrough early in the second set when Siniakova overcooked a backhand to put the defending champions up 3-1. The Canadian-Kiwi pair seemed destined to send the match to a deciding set, not losing a point on serve in their next two games to move within one of forcing a third. But when it came time to serve out the set, they blinked. Routliffe fell behind 15-40 and Townsend ripped a clean return winner to put the set back on serve.
In the tiebreak, the American-Czech team led wire to wire. They secured an early minibreak on the opening point and never trailed. While Dabrowski and Routliffe would fight back to 2-2, another minibreak put them behind again and this time they did not recover, dropping five of the last six points.
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The event is far from over for the defending champions. They still have one group stage match remaining against Timea Babos and Luisa Stefani, and the top two teams in each group qualify for the semifinals. With one win under their belt already, Dabrowski and Routliffe are still in a strong position to advance, especially if they win on Thursday.
Feature Photo : Sarah-Jade Champagne
