Erin Routliffe and Gaby Dabrowski are into the Wimbledon quarterfinals following their 7-6(1) 7-6(2) win over Irina Khromacheva from Russia and Hungary’s Fanny Stollar on Monday.
The win means they have reached at least the quarterfinals in all six of the grand slams they have played together, as they continue to be regarded as one of the top doubles teams in the world.
But this was Routliffe and Dabrowski’s toughest match so far during the Wimbledon fortnight and they needed to raise their levels to clinch both sets.
Dabrowski had her serve broken in the second game, but Stollar wasn’t able to consolidate that lead and was broken in the following game.
Dabrowski fell behind 30-40 at 4-5 for a set point, but Routliffe hit an angled volley at the net for a winner.
Stollar and Khromacheva had another set point soon after and again Routliffe raced across the net for another winning volley.
For a third time the Europeans had a set point and yet again Routliffe was waiting at the net to hit a winner and eventually Dabrowski got the hold.
Although the set was tight, there was only one team in the tiebreak, with Routliffe and Dabrowski winning it 7-1.
Routliffe and Khromacheva both fended off break points early in the second set and after that, the serve dominated.
But once more the tournament’s second seeds took control in the tiebreak, so advanced to the quarterfinals, where they’ll face Veronika Kudermetova from Russia and Belgium’s Elise Mertens.
Although it was a straight-sets win, it still took one hour and 48 minutes — but Dabrowski was relieved they didn’t need a third set.
“We got the job done in two sets, that makes it a bit easier on the body and mind,” she said.
“They played well, they served well and it’s not uncommon, especially on the grass, to find yourself in tiebreakers when both teams are serving pretty well.”
It is almost two years since Routliffe and Dabrowski started playing together, in Montreal in August 2023.
Spending that much time on court together, helps when they’re in tight situations, like in both of the tiebreaks in this match.
“I don’t think it can hurt us, we handled the moments very well,” Dabrowski said.
“We stepped up to close out both of those sets, played very clinically and that’s the way we want to play. So it was kind of very calm and collected, and it worked out luckily in our favour.”
It will be the first meeting between these four players, who between them have appeared in 12 Grand Slam finals.
“It’s kind of nice we get to play a different team,” Routliffe said.
“A lot of the time you find yourself playing the same teams, sometimes over and over and over again. So it’ll be exciting, we’re excited.”
Dabrowski added that it should be an interesting match up.
“They serve big, they return big, they have good ground strokes,” she said.
“So we’ll see how our game style matches up against theirs. I’m really curious to see how it’ll go on the grass for us.”