Routliffe, Dabrowski reach Stuttgart final

Erin Routliffe and Gaby Dabrowski are into their first WTA final together for 2025, having defeated Timea Babos from Hungary and Brazil’s Luisa Stefani 5-7 6-3 10-4 in the Stuttgart semifinal on Saturday.

Although Routliffe, who turned 30 earlier this month, won the WTA 500 tournament in Charleston two weeks ago, she partnered with Jelena Ostapenko for that event.

But reunited with her regular partner, she and Dabrowski have been in impressive form in the German city, reaching a final for the first time since November’s WTA Finals in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Against Babos and Stefani, they had to fight back from losing the opening set, where they were broken for the second time towards the end of it.

But Routliffe and Dabrowski, the tournament's top seeds, both served superbly in the second set, winning the only sudden death deuce point on their serve and they then went on to dominate the third set super tiebreak.

In the final, Routliffe and Dabrowski will play against Ekaterina Alexandrova from Russia and China's Zhang Shuai, who defeated Nicole Melichar-Martinez and Liudmila Samsonova  6-4 4-6 13-11 in the other semifinal.

Routliffe will be going for the 10th title of her career in the final and fifth with Dabrowski. This is also Routliffe's 22nd final.

It was also a memorable day for Ostapenko in Stuttgart, as she defeated Iga Swiatak in three sets in the singles draw.