Sunday’s women’s doubles championship is now set after both women’s doubles semifinal matches were completed on Friday in Louis Armstrong Stadium.
Gabriela Dabrowski and Erin Routliffe dug deep through two sets to secure their first Grand Slam final berth as a pair. As for Laura Siegemund and Vera Zvonareva, it was smooth sailing in their semifinal, as the 2020 champions advanced to their second career US Open final.
Dabrowski and Routliffe were able to stop the red-hot Hsieh Su-Wei and Wang Xinyu with a 6-1, 7-6(4) triumph. For the duo, the first set was straightforward as they managed to convert all three break points in the set.
The second set was more of a battle as Hsieh and Wang both elevated their games to mount a comeback. It was a rough set for the servers as both pairings were consistently breaking each other. There were 19 break points between both pairs in the second set alone, mostly going the way of Dabrowski and Routliffe, who converted 67% of their opportunities (4-for-6).
Despite the aggressive games of Dabrowski and Routliffe, Hsieh and Wang were able to push the match to a tiebreak after their opponents failed to serve out the match twice. In the end, the Canadian and her partner came up big in the tiebreak to seal the match.
With today’s win, the pair ended Hsieh’s winning streak at majors this year at 16 matches, and Hsieh and Wang's chance at a second major in 2023 after capturing the Roland Garros title in June.
“I’m just really ecstatic to be able to play in the finals,” said Routliffe after the match. “And beside Gaby it’s been really, really fun and I think we bring a really good side of each other out.”
As for Siegemund and Zvonareva, the veteran pair came out in top form and easily cruised to a 6-4, 6-1 win over Jennifer Brady and Luisa Stefani.
The 2020 US Open doubles champions were all business, firing 29 winners and saving 75% of the break points faced throughout the match.
With the crowd littered with Brazilian and American fans, Brady and Stefani did their best to keep their grip on Friday’s semifinal. After falling behind 4-0 to start, the duo was able to secure one break back in the first set, but Zvonareva and her German counterpart’s experience as a duo was too strong for the newly-formed team.
“We love to play here in New York,” said Zvonareva after the match. “A lot of people come to watch tennis. We’re enjoying the atmosphere. We support each other and we're happy that it [is] going our way here in New York.”
Siegemund was equally happy with the result.
“I think we had an on-day today, but we [also] prepared really well and we had a clear strategy,” she said. “I'm just really proud of us, [of] how we work[ed] our way forward in this tournament [and] improved. [We] also had really tough moments, so I'm happy that it came together like this today.”
