Dabrowski, Routliffe advance to women’s doubles semifinals at Australian Open

Jan 22, 2024 | 8:20 PM

MELBOURNE, Australia — After a shaky start to their women’s doubles quarterfinal match, Gabriela Dabrowski of Ottawa and partner Erin Routliffe of New Zealand — who now resides in Montreal — settled down and showed why they’re the fourth-seeded combo at this year’s Australian Open.

After falling behind 2-0, Dabrowski and Routliffe rallied to beat Cristina Bucsa of Moldova and Alexandra Panova of Russia 7-5 in the first set, before beating them 6-2 in an easier second set to win the match in one hour, 20 minutes to advance to the semifinals. 

Dabrowski and Routliffe finished with 25 winners, eight aces, one double fault and 16 unforced errors. Bucsa and Panova had 21 winners, 21 unforced errors, two double faults and only one ace.

Dabrowski and Routliffe defeated Jiang Xinyu and Hanyu Guo of China 4-6, 6-1, 6-3 on Sunday in the third round. Bucsa and Panova defeated Beatriz Haddad Maia of Brazil and Taylor Townsend of Chicago 6-2, 6-4, also on Sunday.