Italians win women's doubles

Melbourne - Top seeds Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci beat local favourites Ashleigh Barty and Casey Dellacqua on Friday to win the Australian Open women's doubles title.

The world No 1 pairing from Italy raced through the first set in just under half-an-hour and were impeded in the second, but they broke three times in the final set to win their third major trophy 6-2, 3-6, 6-2.

"It's very hard to figure them out. They're obviously the No 1 team in the world," Dellacqua said. "They're there for a reason. They play very good doubles, and a specific style of doubles."

In mixed doubles, the Australian pairing of Jarmila Gajdosova and Matthew Ebden reached the final when they beat Kazak-Uzbek duo Yaroslava Shvedova and Denis Istomin 7-5, 7-6 (7/5).

They will play Czech team Lucie Hradecka and Frantisek Cermak, who bettered Czechoslovakia's Kveta Peschke and Marcin Matkowski of Poland 3-6, 7-5, (10/7).

In Saturday's men's doubles final, American twins Bob and Mike Bryan will play Robin Haase and Igor Sijsling for a record 13th Grand Slam trophy.