Dabrowski, Routliffe move into doubles semi in Dubai

The second-seeded team of Ottawa's Gabriela Dabrowski and New Zealand's Erin Routliffe moved on to the semifinals of the Dubai Tennis Championships with a 6-4, 6-4 quarterfinal victory over Ukraine's Lyudmyla Kichenok and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia on Thursday.

Routliffe, who resides in Montreal, and Dabrowski won 76 per cent of their first serves and were successful on three of five breakpoint opportunities in a match that took 84 minutes to complete.

It was a rematch from this year's Australian Open semifinals, which Kichenok and Ostapenko won 7-5, 7-5.

Dabrowski and Routliffe, who are the reigning U.S. Open champions, will meet the fourth-seeded duo of Australia's Storm Hunter and Katerina Siniakova of Czechia in Friday's semifinal.

Hunter and Siniakova secured their semifinal spot by defeating the unseeded pair of Aleksandra Krunic from Serbia and Shuko Aoyama from Japan 7-6, 6-4 on Thursday.