Routliffe, Dabrowski lose in Beijing after lengthy super tiebreak battle

Erin Routliffe and Gary Dabrowski lost their second round match to Tereza Mihalikova from Slovakia and Britain’s Olivia Nicholls at the China Open in Beijing on Wednesday night.

The top seeds lost 7-6(5) 3-6 11-9 in a match that went close to two hours on Lotus Court in the Chinese capital.

There were two breaks of serve to each team before the first set went to a tiebreak. Although Routliffe and Dabrowksi got back on level terms after being down 3-0 in it, Nicholls and Mihalikova won three straight point to go a set up.

After a title battle early in the second set, the Canadian and Kiwi dominated the latter stages of it.

In the match deciding super tiebreak Nicholls and Mikalikova went a mini break up towards the end of it and even though Routliffe and Dabrowski saved two match points they could repeat that for another one soon after.

The results in Beijing will see Routliffe remain in second spot in the world rankings, behind Katerina Siniakova, while Dabrowski will move up to No 3.