Routliffe, Dabrowski move into third round at Australian Open

Erin Routliffe and Gaby Dabrowski showcased their resilience on Friday, battling back from a set down to secure a gritty victory at the Australian Open.

The No 2 seeds in Melbourne defeated Maia Lumsden from Britain and the Czech Republic’s Anna Siskova 4-6 6-3 6-4 and several times needed to dig deep against two opponents who never stopped fighting.

Right from the beginning of this match it was clear that this wasn’t going to be a straight forward victory for last year’s WTA Finals champions, with Dabrowski getting broken in the opening game.

Lumsden and Siskova held onto that lead and with Lumsden serving for the set, Dabrowski missed two smashes and Routliffe didn’t put away a volley at the net, with all of this combining to Routliffe and Dabrowski dropping the first set.

When Siskova was broken in the second game of the next set, Routliffe let out an almighty ‘Let’s Go’ after carving a forehand return down the line on break point.

Dabrowski was broken at 4-2, but in the next game Lumsden made back to back double faults, to concede the game, with Routliffe then serving out the set.

There were three breaks at the start of the third set, but Dabrowski was able to get a hold to put her and Routliffe into a strong position.

But at 4-3 Dabrowski was broken, Siskova went up 40-0 in the next game, but after a long battle Routliffe and Dabrowski not only clawed their way back, but got the break. 

So it was down to Routliffe’s serve again and although there was a nervous moment when she went down 15-30, she and Dabrowski won the next three points to secure a place in the round of 16.

Dabrowski said the wind was a big factor in the match. It wasn’t something that they’ve been able to adjust to, because they had to skip the Australian Open lead-in tournaments because of Routliffe’s rib injury. 

“Honestly, the conditions were so tough today,” Dabrowski said. 

“I feel like conditions like this, when you haven't had that many matches in a while, are even tougher than if you have. 

“Not being able to play the few lead-in events where it is windy, like it's windy at the ASB Classic in Auckland, it's windy in Adelaide, so to play here and all of a sudden have to deal with these kinds of variables, it was really tricky.

“But I'm proud of the way we kept fighting. It could have been easy to get ultra frustrated and just bail out, but we didn't and we showed that we could find solutions even on a day where we didn't feel our best. 

“So I think that's a big positive, even though it was a really tricky day.”