Gabriela Dabrowski and Erin Routliffe had reason to be nervous entering the first match of their title defense at the WTA Finals Riyadh presented by PIF.

WTA Finals: Scores | Draws | Order of play

After all, in two other matches against Mirra Andreeva and Diana Shnaider this season, they were winless. 

But they weren’t about to let that trend continue in their happy place. 

In their return to Riyadh, Dabrowski and Routliffe opened the Liezel Huber Group with a 6-3, 7-6(2) win in 1 hour and 23 minutes — running their record in Riyadh to a perfect 6-0.

After leading wire-to-wire in the first set, the third seeds came from a break down in the second set as Andreeva and Shnaider settled in in their WTA Finals debut. Down 5-3, Dabrowski and Routliffe won three straight games, and dominated the eventual tiebreak.

“They’re a really tough match-up for us — their lobs are amazing, their defense is amazing, you have to put away so many balls; it feels like the point never ends,” Routliffe said afterwards. “I think we did a good job in the big moments of putting away the ball and staying aggressive.”

Dabrowski also credited clutch play for the pair’s turnaround. After neither side faced a deciding deuce point on serve in the first set, Dabrowski and Routliffe won three of the four games that featured one in the second set.

“I thought we really stuck with it in the second set, which was awesome,” she said. “I thought our energy was good and it helped us get through some tight points, some deuce points — they’re never easy with the scoring format — so I’m really proud of us.”

Siniakova and Townsend recover their form late to escape Riyadh opener with a win

Katerina Siniakova and Taylor Townsend couldn’t have asked for a better start to their WTA Finals opener in Riyadh.

They No. 2 seeds raced through the first set 6-2 in just over 30 minutes, then jumped out to a 3-1 lead in the second. But Timea Babos and Luisa Stefani, who had struggled to find any rhythm through the first 12 games, suddenly flipped the momentum, winning five straight games to force an unexpected match tiebreak.

Siniakova and Townsend regrouped just in time, rediscovering their early form to close out a 6-2, 3-6, [10-6] victory in 1 hour and 27 minutes.

“I mean, it’s tennis, you know,” Townsend said after the match. “We had some opportunities that we missed, and they started playing a lot freer. With this format, anything can switch (so fast) with it being no-ad and a 10-point tiebreaker. So, it happens, but I was really happy with the way we stayed cool, calm and collected and got back on the same page for the tiebreaker.”

Townsend also shared her excitement about reuniting with Siniakova, as the WTA Finals marked their first tournament together in nearly two months.

“I haven’t been with her since the US Open,” she said. “So, it feels really good to be back on the court with her.”

While the win didn’t come as smoothly as they might have hoped, it did push their record to 29-5 this season and improved their WTA Finals record to 5-1 over the past two seasons. The lone loss came in last year’s final to Dabrowski and Routliffe.

This year, they’re aiming to go one step further as Siniakova chases a second Martina Navratilova trophy and Townsend looks for her first.

But above all, the Australian Open champions are embracing the moment.

“It’s the last tournament of the year and we just want to play our best and have fun on the court,” Townsend said. “So that’s the goal.”