Routliffe joins fellow Kiwis in doubles assault
Erin Routliffe has added to New Zealand’s growing presence in doubles, winning through to her first WTA Tour final.
The 23-year-old has reached the final at the Citi Open in Washington with Chilean partner Alexa Guarachi after they beat Lauren Davis and Kristie Ahn 7-5, 3-6, 10-8 in a lengthy semifinal battle.
The clash took 99 minutes to com- plete but also had a three-hour rain delay when Routliffe and Guarachi were just three points away from victory in the final tiebreak.
Eventually, they pulled out the victory, and though their final opponent is yet to be decided, Routliffe is set to jump into the top 100 in the doubles rankings for the first time, regardless of the result.
There is also a heavy Kiwi presence in the men’s tournament at the Open, with Michael Venus and his South African doubles partner Raven Klaasen moving into the semifinals after a similarly hard-fought win over the Colombian duo of Robert Farah and Juan Sebastian Cabal.
The 6-7 (4), 7-6 (4), 10-6 win took two hours to complete, in what was Venus’ first outing since their run to the Wimbledon final.
Venus and Klaasen saved four match points in the second set and only managed to convert one of 11 break point chances, but prevailed in the tiebreak to book a semi against fourth seeds Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares, who ended the run of Kiwi Artem Sitak and his Indian doubles partner Divij Sharan.
Meanwhile 21-year-old Kiwi Paige Hourigan has battled through to the semifinals at the ITF US$25,000 tournament in Fort Worth Texas.
Hourigan, who will play world No 334 Robin Anderson for a spot in the final, started the event ranked 723 but after winning five matches, she is projected to climb to 604 and inside the top 600 if she makes the final.