Routliffe, Dabrowski’s Australian Open run ends in semifinal thriller

Erin Routliffe and Gaby Dabrowski have gone down fighting in a tense women’s doubles semifinal at the Australian Open.

On Margaret Court Arena on Friday, the No 2 seeds lost 7-6(3) 3-6 6-3 to Jelena Ostapenko from Latvia and Chinese Taipei’s Hsieh Su-Wei in a match that had big momentum swings. 

Despite this loss, Routliffe had a strong Australian Open, reaching the semifinals in both women’s and mixed doubles and with Dabrowski and Michael Venus as her partners, she should also go deep in the three remaining grand slams of 2025.

Ostapenko and Hsieh were both broken the first time each of them served in this match and even though Routliffe was broken later in the set, Dabrowski had a chance to serve it out.

It was an intense battle in this game, with the score going to deuce six times, but eventually on a break point Ostapenko steered a forehand winner down the line.

In the tiebreak, Ostapenko and Hsieh were up 4-2 at the change of ends and at 6-3, Ostapenko blasted a return for a winner off Dabrowski’s serve.

Routliffe and Dabrowski played their best tennis to take the second set, but the Kiwi double faulted on break point early in the third set and despite all their endeavours, she and Dabrowski couldn’t find a way back into the match after that.

 Routliffe felt because of their differing styles, Hsieh and Ostapenko are a tricky team to play against. 

“They're both tough to play separately and obviously tough to play together,” she said.

“They’re just very different. Ostapenko today, she served really well, especially in that third set. Su-Wei is just tricky, because she makes you put the ball away a couple extra times. They're a really good team.”

Routliffe said they did do homework before the match on how Ostapenko and Hsieh work together, but they also needed to focus on what they do well.

“We watched a little bit of them playing this week together. We've watched them playing separately and with other partners. Obviously, we know what works well, but also at the same time, we're a team that if we're doing our stuff, it doesn't really matter as much what they're doing. So we try to focus on that.”

Routliffe and Dabrowski’s next two tournaments are in Doha and Dubai next month. At this stage, they don’t know where they’ll use as a base to train for them.

“We actually don't have plans,” Routliffe said.

“We’re not sure you might stay here, we might go to Sydney, we might go back to Auckland. We’ll see.”