Babos and Stefani rally past defending champions in Riyadh
Deep in a deficit that echoed past heartbreaks, Timea Babos and Luisa Stefani flipped the script on Gabriela Dabrowski and Erin Routliffe, clawing back to claim a semifinal berth at the WTA Finals with a mix of tactical savvy and unyielding drive.
In the charged atmosphere of Riyadh's indoor arena, where the WTA Finals unfold under lights that cast long shadows across the hard courts, No. 7 seeds Timea Babos and Luisa Stefani mounted a stirring comeback against the defending champions. The Hungarian and her Brazilian partner absorbed a punishing first set, their serves tested by sharp net play, before igniting a surge that turned vulnerability into victory. This 2-6, 7-5, 10-5 triumph not only avenged two earlier three-set defeats but propelled Babos back to the semifinals for the first time since 2019, marking her fourth appearance overall in the year-end showcase.
Champions seize control with net precision
Erin Routliffe set the tone right away, her forecourt instincts flashing as she poached three winners in the opening game to break Babos's serve. The No. 3 seeds, riding the momentum of their title defense, converted the first four deciding points of the match, building a 6-2 lead and extending it to 3-2 in the second set with volleys that landed like punctuation marks. On these swift indoor hard courts, where balls skid with predictable pace, Dabrowski and Routliffe's one–two combinations of deep serves and aggressive approaches forced errors, replaying the intensity of their wins over this duo in Stuttgart's semifinals and the US Open quarterfinals.
The crowd's early murmurs hinted at another upset in the making, but the champions' edge stemmed from more than power; it was their anticipation at net that pinned Stefani deep, her returns skimming the baseline without bite. Babos, drawing on her three prior WTA Finals titles, sensed the psychological weight of those prior losses, where leads had slipped away in the deciders. As the set progressed, small lapses began to surface for the higher seeds, their intensity flickering under the scoreboard's glare.
"This year we had two very tough matches against Gaby and Erin," Babos said afterwards. "Both times we were leading and then both times we couldn't close it out, and they ended up winning the tournament. It's a little bit karma, in a way, but we deserved it."
Resilience sparks a break-filled reversal
Trailing by a set and a break at 2-3 in the second, Stefani and Babos elevated their game, initiating four consecutive breaks that exposed cracks in the champions' net dominance. Routliffe's volleys, once emphatic, now faltered into errors, while winning lobs from the underdogs arced perfectly over the advancing pair, forcing awkward retrievals on the hard surface. Stefani's crosscourt returns gained depth, disrupting the rhythm that had carried Dabrowski and Routliffe through the group stage, and the Brazilian's underspin backhands kept rallies alive just long enough to invert the pressure.
At 5-5, Babos held firm to save two break points, her inside-out forehand slicing through the tension like a release valve. The set's turning points came on Routliffe's misjudgments: she let a Stefani return bounce in unchallenged, then netted a backhand volley, handing the frame to the comeback duo amid swelling cheers from the stands. This sequence wasn't random; it reflected the pair's adjustments to the matchup, leveraging the court's speed to reward their baseline solidity over the champions' shorter-point reliance, a shift that echoed through the arena's humid air.
For Stefani, making her tournament debut as the first Brazilian to reach the doubles semifinals in any discipline, the moment carried extra weight, her movements shedding initial nerves for liberated poise. Babos, absent from the Finals since 2019, fed off the shared frustration, their partnership syncing into a fluid one–two of serve and return that propelled them forward. The energy in Riyadh thickened, the underdogs' resolve turning the match into a test of endurance as much as skill.
Super tiebreak clinches semifinal advance
Babos opened the super tiebreak with a sharp net exchange to snag the first mini-break, her reflex volley cutting through the traffic to establish early control. From there, the duo maintained the lead, Stefani's deep inside-in returns forcing hurried responses while Babos fired a terrific backhand winner down-the-line at 7-5, stretching the advantage to 8-5. Routliffe's smash drifted into the net on match point, sealing the 10-5 victory and sending the Hungarian-Brazilian pair into Friday's semifinals against the Martina Navratilova Group winners, Hsieh Su-Wei and Jelena Ostapenko, in a matchup unmarred by prior history.
The win layered redemption atop the season's narrative, exorcising the ghosts of those unclosed sets from earlier clashes. As the runners-up from the Liezel Huber Group, they advance with momentum, the hard courts' pace having amplified their return aggression against the volley-heavy champions. Fans can follow the unfolding action via the WTA Finals: Scores, Draws, and Order of play, where every exchange builds toward potential glory. In this spotlight, Babos and Stefani stand poised to extend their run, the thrill of possibility now replacing the weight of what-ifs.
