Melbourne, Australia – Top seeds Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci secured a berth in Friday's women's doubles final at the 2013 Australian Open.
The Italian duo handled an unseeded Russian tandem of Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina 6-2, 6-4, while Wednesday's other semifinal saw Aussie crowd favorites Ashleigh Barty and Casey Dellacqua defeat fellow non-seeds Varvara Lepchenko of the United States and Chinese Zheng Saisai 6-2, 6-4 in the Day-10 nightcap at Melbourne Park.
An Aussie pairing hasn't captured the Aussie Open women's doubles title since 1979.
On Tuesday, the 2012 French Open singles runner-up Errani and Vinci upended the 12th-seeded mighty Williams sisters in three sets.
Errani and Vinci are the reigning U.S. and French Open champions and were last year's Aussie Open runners-up.
The winning doubles team on Friday will split $500,000.