Erin Routliffe and Gabriela Dabrowski, of Canada, right, returns a shot alongside doubles partner Erin Routliffe, of New Zealand, left, during the women's doubles final of the U.S. Open tennis championships against Laura Siegemund, of Germany, and Vera Zvonareva, of Russia, on Sept. 10, 2023, in New York.Manu Fernandez/The Associated Press
After a shaky start to their women’s doubles quarter-final match, Gabriela Dabrowski of Ottawa and partner Erin Routliffe of New Zealand settled down and showed why they’re the fourth-seeded combo at this year’s Australian Open.
Dabrowski and Routliffe, a dual citizen who lives in Montreal, dropped the first two games before rallying for a 7-5, 6-2 win over Cristina Bucsa of Moldova and Alexandra Panova of Russia in one hour 20 minutes.
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 will next play Lyudmyla Kichenok of Ukraine and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia in the semi-finals. Kichenok and Ostapenko defeated French combo Caroline Garcia and Kristina Mladenovic 7-6 (2), 6-4 earlier on Monday.
With only a couple hours between matches, Dabrowski’s bid to reach the semi-final round in mixed doubles came up just short on Monday night.
Dabrowski and American partner Nathaniel Lammons, seeded sixth in the draw, were beaten 6-4, 7-6 (7) in one hour 21 minutes by Australians Olivia Gadecki and Marc Polmans.
On Wednesday, Regina’s Keegan Rice and American Roy Horovitz were scheduled to play their junior boys’ doubles quarter-final against the American duo of Maxwell Exsted and Cooper Woestendick. Rice lost in the second round of the singles draw.
In wheelchair tennis, Rob Shaw of North Bay, Ont., is the lone Canadian entered in the quad division for players with varying levels of upper and lower limb impairment.
Shaw was scheduled to play fourth-seeded Guy Sasson of Israel in the quad singles quarter-finals on Wednesday.
Shaw and Australia’s Heath Davidson are the second-seeded duo in quad doubles. They were scheduled to meet Australia’s Finn Broadbent and Britain’s Gregory Slade in their opening match later in the day.