Gabriela Dabrowski and Erin Routliffe’s hopes of going back-to-back at the WTA Finals came to an end on Thursday in Riyadh after a defeat at the hands of Timea Babos and Luisa Stefani. With the loss, the defending champions will not advance to the semifinals.
Both teams came into the final round-robin clash with a 1-1 record, meaning the winners would advance to the final four while the losers would be eliminated. Dabrowski and Routliffe led for most of the match but paid the price for failing to put away the Hungarian-Brazilian pair when they had a chance. Babos and Stefani rallied from a break down twice in the second set before pulling out the match tiebreak for a 2-6, 7-5, 10-5 win.
Dabrowski and Routliffe came out flying to start the must-win match, breaking Babos in the opening game of the match. The defending champions did have to save a break point in the following game when trying to consolidate, but hung on for a 2-0 lead.
Stefani dominated on her own serve in the opening set, not dropping a point, but when it was Babos’ turn, the Canadian-Kiwi duo had their chances. The second time the Hungarian stepped up to the line, she fell behind 15-40 and Dabrowski and Routliffe managed to pounce for a second break to go up 4-1. That was more than enough cushion to secure the first set.
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Each woman held their first service game to start the second set before the script flipped completely.
Four consecutive breaks followed, with each woman dropping serve once. It started with the defending champions breaking Stefani for the first time with a huge forehand winner up the middle by Dabrowski, but the Brazilian-Hungarian duo responded immediately.
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Missed opportunities in the second set ultimately came back to haunt Dabrowski and Routliffe. During the four-break run, they led by a break twice but could not consolidate either time. They then had two break points in the 10th game that would have given them a chance to serve for the match, but they could not convert.
When the Canadian served to stay in the set at 5-6, she fell behind love-40 and Routliffe netted a volley to send it to a match tiebreak.
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1-1 in the breaker was as close as Dabrowski and Routliffe would get. Babos and Stefani scored a minibreak to go up 2-1 and never let the defending champions draw even again. Three times in the match tiebreak, the Canadian-Kiwi duo got a minibreak only to lose the subsequent point on their own serve. They ended up losing their final four service points in the match as Babos and Stefani snagged the spot in the semis.
The season is not over for Dabrowski, as she will now make the trip to Monterrey, Mexico, to represent Canada at the Billie Jean King Cup.
Feature Photo : WTA Finals Riyadh
