(New York) Canadian Gabriela Dabrowski and New Zealand partner Erin Routliffe moved one step closer to a second straight U.S. Open women’s doubles title Sunday at Flushing Meadows.
Dabrowski and Routliffe, the favourites for the competition, defeated the duo formed by the Italian Angelica Moratelli and the Romanian Jaqueline Cristian in two sets of 7-5, 7-6 to earn their place in the quarter-finals.
Dabrowski and Routliffe snatched this victory despite committing six double faults on serve, compared to two for their rivals, and 22 unforced errors compared to 14 for Moratelli and Cristian.
The defending champions, however, suffered one more service break than their opponents – three to two – throughout the match, in addition to collecting four mini-breaks to two in the deciding game of the second set.
Moreover, Dabrowski and Routliffe had to come from behind in this second set, after being victims of a break that then allowed Moratelli and Cristian to give themselves a 3-1 lead. This lead was brief, Dabrowski and Routliffe recovering this break in the following game. In the first set, Dabrowski and Routliffe obtained the decisive break in the 11e game.
In the quarter-finals, Dabrowski and Routliffe will face the winners of the match between the tandem of the British Harriet Dart and the French Diane Parry and that of the Russian Veronika Kudermetova and the Taiwanese Hao-Ching Chan.
Dabrowski and Routliffe, who won the tournament last year as a round of 16it is The top seeds are attempting to become the first pair to win the women’s doubles two years in a row at Flushing Meadows in 20 years, since Spain’s Virginie Ruano Pascual and Argentina’s Paola Suarez won the title between 2002 and 2004.
Frenchwoman Nathalie Dechy also won the women’s doubles in two consecutive editions at Flushing Meadows, in 2006 and 2007, but with different partners.