New Zealand's Erin Routliffe and Gabriela Dabrowski of Canada Photo: AFP
New Zealand tennis player Erin Routliffe and her doubles partner Canada's Gaby Dabrowski have caused an upset in their opening match of the WTA Finals in Mexico.
Routliffe and Dabrowski who are the seventh seeds for the season-ending tournament beat the world number one pairing of Americans Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula 7-6 6-3 on Monday.
The pairing who have only been playing together since August came from behind early in the first set to defeat the favourites in Cancun.
Routliffe and Dabrowski qualified for the tournament by winning three WTA titles in the last couple of months including the US Open.
They are next on court on Wednesday.
The WTA Finals singles and doubles draws are split into two groups, which then play a round-robin series with the top two from each group qualifying for the semi-finals.
The prize pool for the WTA Finals is $15 million.