Routliffe, Dabrowski make stunning comeback at Australian Open

In a stunning display of determination and grit, Erin Routliffe and Gaby Dabrowski staged a remarkable comeback at the Australian Open, rallying from 3-0 down in the final set to claim a hard-fought victory over Desirae Krawczyk and Danielle Collins

Routliffe and Dabrowski won the match 4-6 6-4 6-4 in a battle that lasted two hours, nine minutes and as the scoreline suggests, it was an epic battle for the second seeds, who needed to dig deep to survive.

However, it was the type of gutsy display from Routliffe and Dabrowski that has made them one of the top doubles teams in the world, as they won six games straight in the final set. 

Right from the start of this match it was clear that this wasn’t going to be an easy match for Routliffe and Dabrowski.

Krawczyk was broken in the fourth game. But Routliffe didn’t hold serve in the next, with Krawczyk hitting a smash on break point.

Routliffe was broken again when serving at 3-3, to give the Americans the lead for the first time in the match and they continued to hold it, with Collins hitting an ace on set point.

There wasn’t a break point in the second set until the 10th game, when Collins went down 15-40 on her serve, to give Routliffe and Dabrowski two sets points and on the second of them Dabrowski steered her return down the line for a winner.

Dabrowski was broken in the first game of the deciding set and Routliffe suffered the same fate two games later. 

So things weren’t looking good, down 3-0 and by two breaks. 

They managed to break Krawczyk in the next game to give themselves hope of a comeback.

At 2-3, Collins was serving at 15-40 and on the second of those break points, Dabrowski once more slammed a backhand winner down the line with her return.

The comeback continued with a hold and then another break.

Dabrowski got the opportunity to serve it out for a place in the second round, but after an extraordinarily long rally, the Americans saved the match point.

However, on a second match point Krawczyk went wide scooping a low ball, which sparked huge celebrations from Routliffe and Dabrowski and all of the Kiwi tennis fans on Court 12.

Dabrowski said afterwards that although she and Routliffe were in a hole at two breaks down in the third set, she didn’t feel they were being outplayed. 

“The first game was really close. We got unlucky. We had game point. It kind of felt like it was 3-0, but it's not like they had blown through us to get to 3-0, in a sense,” Dabrowski said.

“I think we knew also I felt like getting that breaking Des would help with the momentum shift back a little bit in our favour, even though at that point it would only be 3-1. 

“It felt like maybe we were a game ahead of that. I don't know. It was just a feeling sometimes that you have on the court.”

There’s not a leader in the Routliffe/ Dabrowski team. They can both try to lift each other when it’s getting tight.

“We kind of go back and forth with who leads in tough moments. I think today it was probably Gaby,” Routliffe said. 

“I was struggling for the first hour of that match pretty hard. I did not play a lot of tennis over the offseason because I've been injured. So just getting that confidence of being on the court again.

“I started hitting 10 days ago, something like that. I’ve been easily frustrated. When you are, really confident in something and then you don't get to do it, and you're missing the reps.

“I definitely leaned on Gaby a lot. So I would say you today. But I think we bopped back and forth.”