Routliffe, Dabrowski give walkover win to opponents in Strasbourg

Erin Routliffe and Gaby Dabrowski pulled out of their semifinal against Timea Babos from Hungary and Brazil’s Luisa Stefani at the WTA 500 tournament in Strasbourg, France.

The top seeds gave their opponents a walkover win, which was announced on Thursday morning, local time.

Although no official reason was given for their withdrawal, that this happened just a few days before the start of the French Open could be a factor and previously they have pulled out of tournaments just before a grand slam if one of them has a niggle.

Despite their withdrawal, if there’s no serious injury to either of them, they should head to Roland Garros in good spirits, having won the tournament in Stuttgart a few weeks ago and then suffered narrow super tiebreak losses Rome and Madrid. 

Meanwhile, the singles draws for Roland Garros have been done and Kiwi Lulu Sun will play against a qualifier in the opening round.

Sun, who has spent the week training in Paris, would go on to play the winner of the match between No 28 seed Peyton Stearns from the United States and Germany’s Eva Lys.

Roland Garros begins on Sunday.