The remarkable run of tennis success of Erin Routliffe and Gaby Dabrowski continues in Grand Slams as they reached the semifinals or better for the fourth time today.
The only other occasion they have played a Grand Slam, they made the quarter-finals at the US Open last year.
The New Zealand and Canadian duo, who are the tournament’s second seeds, beat the unseeded pair of Miyu Kato of Japan and Mexico’s Renata Zarazua 6-3, 6-2 in 77 minutes on Margaret Court Arena in the Australian Open women’s doubles quarter-finals in Melbourne.
They always looked in control of the match, racing to a 3-0 lead early on after breaking the Mexican’s serve. However, Dabrowski had her serve broken in the fifth game to let their opponents into the match. Once again, Zarazua lost her serve and that was all Routliffe and Dabrowski needed to stay ahead and wrap up the set.
The second set started in similar fashion, with a 3-0 lead following breaks on Zarazua and Kato’s serving. But Routliffe dropped her own game and the score was 3-2.
Any hint of a big comeback by the unseeded pair was quickly dispelled as Dabrowski won her serve and they then broke Kato, before Routliffe served out the match in hot conditions.
It was the first time at the tournament they had won the first set and a match in straight sets in what was an almost subdued performance compared with their previous tight contests.
Their semifinal opponents are expected to be a lot tougher, as they face either third seeds Jelena Ostapenko (Latvia) and Su-Wei Hsieh (Taipei), or the team of Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk and Elena-Gabriela Ruse (Romania). Routliffe is back in action later today with fellow Kiwi Michael Venus in the mixed doubles quarter-finals.
