Source: Radio New Zealand
New Zealand’s Erin Routliffe and her doubles partner Asia Muhammad. Joshua Devenie / www.photosport.nz
New Zealand’s top doubles player, Erin Routliffe, has had her Australian Open come to an end in the third round.
The Kiwi doubles star, and her partner Asia Muhammad, were upset by Ena Shibahara of Japan and Russian veteran Vera Zvonareva 7-5, 6-3, 6-1.
Breaks were traded in the fourth and fifth games of the first set before the sixth seeds led 5-4, only to drop the next three games in a row and the set 7-5.
In the second set, Routliffe and Muhammad gained the only break in the fourth game on Shibahara’s serve and kept the lead as the American rounded out the set 6-3.
However, the third set was a struggle for the Kiwi and American combination in their first Slam together.
Muhammad was broken in the second game and Routliffe in the fourth as Zvonareva and Shibahara raced through the set and match 6-1.
It was a case of winding back the clock for the 41-year-old Zvonareva.
Zvonareva peaked at No. 2 in the singles rankings in 2010, the same year she finished runner-up at Wimbledon and the US Open.
Zvonareva made a low-key comeback at the ITF W100 in Dubai in December, marking her first professional tournament since June 2024.
Routliffe and her mixed doubles partner, Andre Goransson of Sweden, were knocked out of the tournament yesterday.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand