No.2 seeds Gabriela Dabrowski and Erin Routliffe took a commanding 2-0 lead in the WTA Finals Riyadh White Group after saving one match point to win a 1-6, 7-6(1), [11-9] thriller in 1 hour and 31 minutes over No.4 seeds Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini.

WTA Finals Riyadh: Scores | Schedule | Standings

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The contest pitted the two winning teams of Sunday's round-robin matches against each other, and it was the 2023 US Open champions who backed up their straight-sets opening victory over Chan Hao-Ching and Veronika Kudermetova.

"That was a really, really fighting match," said Routliffe afterwards. "I'm glad we put on a show for you guys, but I hope the next match won't be as exciting!"

The New Zealander's formidable first serve fended off the match point in the super-tiebreak, which Dabrowski joked about in their on-court interview.

"What happened on match point? Big serve? Sounds about right!" said the Canadian.

"It was such a challenge to try to raise our level," she continued. "To try to play against a team that plays a little bit differently than others, with Errani serve-and-volleying and stuff like that. It's kind of things that we do, but don't necessarily play against a lot. Pretty proud of us for the adjustments we made."

In a first-time encounter between the two teams, Errani and Paolini dominated the opening set, winning the first 14 points to get over halfway to a rare 'golden set'. The Olympic gold medallists found winners from every corner of the court to prevent Dabrowski and Routliffe from making any real impact, and closed out the opener in just 22 minutes.

However, last year's runners-up raised their level in the second set, targeting the Errani serve in particular. Momentum swung back and forth: Dabrowski and Routliffe were unable to close out a 5-3 lead, but broke Errani for the third time as the 37-year-old served for the match at 6-5.

A thrilling super-tiebreak saw Dabrowski and Routliffe win the best point of the match with a Dabrowski volley winner to take an 8-7 lead. Trailing 9-8, Routliffe came up with a pair of service winners to reach their first match point, which they converted as a well-placed Dabrowski return foiled Errani's serve-and-volley attempt.