Canada's Dabrowski reaches US Open doubles third round with Routliffe

NEW YORK — A pair of Canadians advanced to the third round of U.S. Open women's doubles with Saturday's victories.

Ottawa's Gabriela Dabrowski and Erin Routliffe of New Zealand, and Leylah Fernandez of Laval, Que., and Taylor Townsend of the U.S. were victorious in their second-round matches.

Sixth-seeds Fernandez and Townsend beat Spaniards Aliona Bolsova and Rebeka Masarova in straight sets 6-2, 7-5.

Dabrowski and Routliffe, the 16th seeds, needed three sets to defeat China's Zhu Lin and Taiwan's Wu Fang-hsien 6-3, 3-6, 6-3.

Fernandez and Townsend meet Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic and Croatia's Donna Vekic in the third round.

The next opponent for Dabrowski and Routliffe is the Czech duo of Barbora Strycova and Marketa Vondrousova.

Dabrowski, 31, reached the U.S. Open women's doubles semifinal in 2021 with Brazilian partner Luisa Stefani, who withdrew during that match with a season-ending knee injury.

Dabrowski and Routliffe are competing in their fourth tournament as a duo. Their partnership began in August at the National Bank Open in Montreal.

Fernandez, a U.S. Open finalist in women's singles in 2021, also reached the third round of women's doubles in New York that year with Routliffe as her partner.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 2, 2023.