Number 2 seeds Gabriela Dabrowski and Erin Routliffe came back from a set and a break down to beat number 5 seeds Caroline Dolehide and Desirae Krawczyk 4-6 6-3 10-6 in 1 hour and 33 minutes on the last day of the round-robin play at the WTA Finals in Ryadh.
Dolehide and Krawczyk broke serve in the final game of the first set with a pair of clean return winners on Dabrowski’s serve. Krawczyk double faulted down a break point at 2-0 in the second set. Dabrowski and Routliffe took control of the match by breaking serve three times in the third, seventh and ninth games to win the second set 6-3. After a trade of mini-breaks on the first two points of the super tie-break, Dolehide and Krawczyk earned a second mini-break to take a 4-2 lead. Dabrowski and Routliffe won eight of the next ten points with three mini-breakks to take the tie-break 10-6.
Dabrowkski and Routliffe finish the group stage with a perfect 3-0 record. They have improved to 2-1 in their head-to-head matches following a win in the Wimbledon semifinals and in the Toronto WTA 1000 final this year. Dolehide and Krawczyk ended their first WTA Finals with a 0-3 record after losing all three of their three matches in super tie-breaks. The winner of the winner match between Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini and Chan Hao Ching and Veronika Kudemertova will finished second in the White Group.
“The key was just chipping away, trying to problem-solve. It was not easy, they brought a great level. Because we already knew we were into the next round but still really wanted to win this one, it’s a dynamic we don’t have often, but I love that about the round-robin format. It was a match where we could express ourselves and improve parts of our game”, said Dabrowski.
