Dabrowski, Routliffe win their pool at WTA Finals, advance to semifinals

Gabriela Dabrowski of Ottawa and New Zealand's Erin Routliffe rallied to defeat Americans Caroline Dolehide and Desirae Krawczyk 4-6, 6-3, (10-6) on Thursday at the WTA Finals in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

With the win, Dabrowski and Routliffe completed the round-robin stage with a perfect 3-0 record at the season-ending tournament, which features the WTA Tour's top eight women's doubles teams.

The No. 2 seeds secured first place in their pool with the win, rallying from a set and break down to finish the match in 93 minutes.

Dolehide and Krawczyk, who defeated Dabrowski and Routliffe in the final at Toronto's National Bank Open in August, closed their first WTA Finals with a 0-3 record.

Dabrowski and Routliffe will face American Nicole Melichar-Martinez and Australia's Ellen Perez, who finished second in their group with a 2-1 record, in Friday's semifinal.

The final is scheduled for Saturday.

Krejcikova prevails in straight sets

Barbora Krejcikova grabbed the last semifinal spot at the WTA Finals with a 7-5, 6-4 win over Coco Gauff, a result that eliminated second-ranked Iga Swiatek from the season-ending tournament.

Krejcikova completes a last-four lineup that already included top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka, Zheng Qinwen and Gauff.

Krejcikova won the Orange Group and will face Zheng in Friday's semifinals, while Gauff will take on Purple Group winner Sabalenka.

Swiatek earlier routed alternate Daria Kasatkina 6-1, 6-0 in less than an hour, but she needed Krejcikova to lose to third-ranked Gauff in order to advance from the Orange Group. Krejcikova, Gauff and Swiatek all finished at 2-1, and Swiatek was eliminated because she has a worse percentage of sets won.

Kasatkina replaced American Jessica Pegula, who withdrew from the tournament on Wednesday because of a left knee injury.

"I'm professional enough to always give 100% no matter what the stakes are," Swiatek said.

Sinner, Alcaraz separated for ATP Finals

Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz were placed in different groups for the ATP Finals in Thursday's draw. The earliest they could meet is the semifinals.

The Ilie Nastase Group features Sinner, Daniil Medvedev, Taylor Fritz and Alex de Minaur.

The John Newcombe Group features Alcaraz, Alexander Zverev, Casper Ruud and Andrey Rublev.

The tournament for the year's top eight men's players starts on Sunday in Turin, Italy and the top two finishers in each group advance to the semifinals.

Sinner (Australian Open and U.S. Open) and Alcaraz (French Open and Wimbledon) split the year's four Grand Slam titles between them.

Defending champion Novak Djokovic withdrew on Tuesday citing an injury.

The groups are named for the first No. 1s in the ATP rankings: Nastase and Newcombe.