Canadian Gabriela Dabrowski advances to second round in doubles at Aussie Open

MELBOURNE, Australia — Canada's Gabriela Dabrowski is off to the second round of the women's doubles draw at the Australian Open.

The Ottawa native and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia, the sixth seeds, beat Maria Sakkari of Greece and Alja Tomljanovic of Australia 7-6, 6-4 in the first round on Thursday.

Dabrowski, ranked eighth in the world in doubles, has a new partner in Ostapenko for the opening Grand Slam of the season. She split with previous partner Yifan Xu of China after last season.

Dabrowski and Xu's best result at Grand Slam was a runner-up showing at last year's Wimbledon final.

Dabrowski and Ostapenko will face Americans Asia Muhammad and Sabrina Santamaria in the second round. 

Dabrowski also is seeded third in the mixed doubles draw with Finnish partner Henri Kontinen. They open play Friday against Lucie Hradecka of the Czech Republic and Kevin Krawietz of Germany.

In singles, Milos Raonic of Thornhill, Ont., is the lone Canadian remaining. The No. 32 seed faces No. 6 Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece in the third round on Friday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 23, 2020.

The Canadian Press

Return to The Albertan