Top seeds Gabriela Dabrowski of Ottawa and Erin Routliffe of New Zealand fell just short of a women’s doubles final appearance at the Pan Pacific Open tennis tournament in Tokyo.
The pair were defeated 6-4, 2-6, 10-5 by Japan’s Shuko Aoyama and Eri Hozumi in semifinal action Saturday.
Aoyama and Hozumi won despite failing to save any of the five break points they faced.
They made up for it by leading Dabrowski and Routliffe 3-2 in first-set breaks, then winning an impressive 71.4 per cent of return points in the third set.
Aoyama and Hozumi will face Japan’s Ena Shibahara and Germany’s Laura Siegemund in the final.
Dabrowski and Routliffe are gearing up for doubles competition at the WTA Finals, which begin Nov. 2 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.