The Miami Herald > Sports > Tennis

Tennis

Logout

Member Center

Weather | Traffic

Posted on Wednesday, 01.25.12

tool goes here

Italians, Russians reach women's Aussie doubles final

By Sports Network

The Sports Network

Friday's women's doubles final at the Australian Open will pit an 11th-seeded Italian tandem of Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci against a strong unseeded Russia duo of Svetlana Kuznetsova and Vera Zvonareva.

Errani and Vinci upended a seventh-seeded Czech pairing of Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka 5-7, 7-5, 6-1, while Kuznetsova and Zvonareva ousted sixth seeds Sania Mirza of India and fellow Russian Elena Vesnina 7-6 (7-4), 2-6, 6-4. Hlavackova and Hradecka are the reigning French Open champs, having beaten Mirza and Vesnina in last year's finale in Paris.

The two-time Grand Slam singles champion Kuznetsova was an Aussie Open doubles champion in 2005 and runner-up in 2004. The former Wimbledon and U.S. Open singles runner-up Zvonareva is a former U.S. Open doubles champ.

Errani was a singles quarterfinal loser in Melbourne on Wednesday.

Friday's winners will split $475,000.

Join the discussion

The Miami Herald is pleased to provide this opportunity to share information, experiences and observations about what's in the news. Some of the comments may be reprinted elsewhere in the site or in the newspaper. We encourage lively, open debate on the issues of the day, and ask that you refrain from profanity, hate speech, personal comments and remarks that are off point. Thank you for taking the time to offer your thoughts.

We have introduced a new commenting system called Disqus for our articles. This allows readers the option of signing in using their Facebook, Twitter, Disqus or existing MiamiHerald.com username and password.

Having problems? Read more about the commenting system on MiamiHerald.com.