Erin Routliffe makes winning start in Wuhan with new partner Leylah Fernandez

Erin Routliffe and her partner in Wuhan, Leylah Fernandez, have won a tight first round match 2-6 6-4 10-6, against Irina Khromacheva from Russia and Indonesia’s Aldila Sutjiadi.

Routliffe isn’t playing with her regular partner, Gaby Dabrowski, at the WTA 1000 tournament in China, but has teamed up with another Canadian, Fernandez.

It wasn’t a great start to the match for Routliffe and Fernandez, who are unseeded for this tournament, as they had their serves broken twice in the opening set.

However, they bounced back in the second, converting two of the break points they had.

Routliffe and Fernandez then held their nerve to take out the third set super tiebreak and advance to the second round.

Even though Routliffe and Fernandez came through to win the match, Khromacheva and Sutjiadi won four of the five deciding points deuces.

Their next match will be against Linda Noskova from the Czech Republic and Slovakia’s Rebecca Sramkova.