Gabriela Dabrowski of Ottawa and her Brazilian playing partner Luisa Stefani opened the WTA Finals doubles tournament at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden on Monday with a straight-sets victory over Belgian Elise Mertens and Zhang Shuai of China.
Dabrowski and Stefani won the one-hour, 36-minute match 6-3, 7-6 (5).
Group stage outlook
Dabrowski and her partner are the top seeds in Group 1, a four-team round-robin. The other two teams are Kristina Mladenovic of France and Hanyu Guo of China, and Su-Wei Hsieh of Taiwan and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia.
Match statistics
Dabrowski and Stefani finished with three aces, seven winners, five double faults and 14 unforced errors. They won nine of 11 service games and three of 10 return games.
Mertens and Shuai recorded three aces, nine winners, two double faults and 12 unforced errors. They won seven of 10 service games and two of 11 return games.