Ottawa’s Gabriela Dabrowski and New Zealand’s Erin Routliffe will not defend their doubles title at the WTA Finals.
The third-seeded duo faced a tough battle, ultimately falling 2-6, 7-5, 10-5 in their final group-stage encounter against seventh seeds Timea Babos from Hungary and Brazil’s Luisa Stefani on Thursday.
This disappointing result left the defending champions with a group stage record of 1-2, preventing them from progressing to the semifinals.
Although Dabrowski and Routliffe delivered seven aces during the match, their serving game suffered overall.
Their performance saw them win a mere 50.7 percent of total service points, and they struggled to maintain momentum after being broken three times on five chances in the second set, which allowed Babos and Stefani to mount a strong comeback.
Babos advances to the doubles semifinals for the fourth time, while Stefani, a former partner of Dabrowski, makes her WTA Finals debut. They will face Hsieh Su-Wei and Jelena Ostapenko in the upcoming semifinals on Friday.
