Gabriela Dabrowski, of Canada, right, returns a shot alongside doubles partner Erin Routliffe, of New Zealand, left, during the women's doubles final of the U.S. Open tennis championships against Laura Siegemund, of Germany, and Vera Zvonareva, of Russia, Sunday, Sept. 10, 2023, in New York. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP, Manu Fernandez
INDIAN WELLS, Calif. – On a day of big upsets at the BNP Paribas Open, second-seeded Gabriela Dabrowski of Ottawa and her partner Erin Routliffe of New Zealand were bounced out of the women’s doubles draw by a pair of underdogs.
Asia Muhammad of Long Beach, Calif., and Ena Shibahara of Japan took one hour, 52 minutes to eliminate Dabrowski and Routliffe 7-6 (3), 2-6, 12-10 in the second round of the WTA 1000 tournament. They’ll advance to the quarterfinals to play the fifth-seeded Americans Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula, who defeated Americans Sofia Kenin and Bethanie Mattek-Sands 7-5, 6-3 on Monday.
Dabrowski and Routliffe struggled in the first set, but seemed to have found their game with an easy second-set victory.
But even though Muhammad and Shibahara bent in the final set they didn’t break.
Dabrowski and Routliffe finished the match with three double faults, no aces and no tiebreak wins.
Muhammad and Shibahara only no aces, but only two double faults and, most importantly, they won the two tiebreakers.
In the biggest upset of the day, Luca Nardi used a combination of poise and power to stun his boyhood idol and top-seed Novak Djokovic with a 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 win on Monday in the third round of men’s singles.
Setting the tone early with his hard-hitting shots, the 20-year-old from Italy frustrated Djokovic all evening. Nardi, who’s ranked No. 123, closed out his huge upset over the No. 1 player in the world with an ace. He dropped his racket and brought his hands to his face almost in disbelief before greeting Djokovic at the net.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 11, 2024.
