Canadians Fernandez, Dabrowski suffer lopsided defeats at Qatar Open

Canada's Gabriela Dabrowski, left, and partner Erin Routliffe of New Zealand in action during their women's doubles semifinal against Hsieh Su-Wei of Taiwan and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Friday, Jan. 24, 2025. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP-Ng Han Guan)

DOHA — It was a tough day for Canadian tennis players at the Qatar Open on Wednesday with both Leylah Fernandez and Gabriela Dabrowski making quick exits from their respective events.

Fernandez was defeated 6-3, 6-0 by American Amanda Anisimova in third-round singles action at the WTA 1000 event.

The world No. 27 from Laval, Que., couldn’t get anything going against Anisimova, who wrapped up the match in a tidy 64 minutes.

The American saved the only two break points she faced while converting four of her eight break points against Fernandez.

It was the first meeting between the players since 2022, when Fernandez picked up wins over the American at Indian Wells and the French Open.

Earlier, Ottawa’s Dabrowski and Erin Routliffe of New Zealand were eliminated from the women’s doubles competition with a 6-2, 6-1 loss to Russians Mirra Andreeva and Diana Shnaider.

The Russians needed just 56 minutes to post the win over the top seeds. They saved both break points they faced while breaking Dabrowski and Routliffe four times on six chances.

In a dominant second set, Andreeva and Shnaider won 14-of-17 first-serve points, compared to 4-of-8 for their favoured opponents.

The rare early exit for Dabrowski and Routliffe, the reigning WTA Finals doubles champions, comes on the heels of a run to the semifinals at last month’s Australian Open.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 12, 2025.

The Canadian Press