Menu item #2 - Women's Doubles Final

Italy v Russia - it could be a Fed Cup final doubles rubber. Unseeded but extremely dangerous Russian pair, Svetlana Kuznetsova and Vera Zvonareva were battling Italian number 11 seeds Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci for the Aus Open Women Doubles title of 2012.

Some doubles theory suggests that serving brings advantage not seen to the same extent in singles. The four finalists went out of their way to trash that school of thought. After a couple of service holds, we reached a point in the first set where serve was broken seven out of eleven times. This statistic by itself may suggest a less than acceptable standard of tennis - on the contrary, the rallies were very even, and once they were started, the receiving team took the final initiative on most occasions.

Roberta and Sara did an Italian job on the others to hold serve and go one set up 7-5.

Svetlana had won this title some years back with Australia's Alicia Molik, so had the experience of the thrill - her doubles probably steadied the Russian team after the disappointment of dropping the first set, and after players made a conscious effort to regard their respective service games with a little more respect, the second set resembled something closer to a textbook version of what a women's doubles final could be.

Having the advantage of serving first, the Russian team at 4-3 placed scoreboard pressure on the Italians, and each of the two chances provided them in the set to break serve was accepted gratefully. In contrast, the Italian team had many opportunities, all but one which went begging, and so the second set could well have been a match winning one but for the resolve of Sveta and Vera to scratch and claw their way through the break point troubles.

Instead we had a third set to determine the 2012 champions. Because they broke to win the second set, the Russians served first in the final set. The fourth game was the crucial point of the set as the Italians lost serve. For the rest of the set, essentially nothing separated the teams, as the doubles on display lifted in intensity and quality.

Once more the Italians created a handful of break chances and could convert none of them. The Russians had no more break points with which to convert, but they already had used the single opportunity to maximum effect. The final game of the match was one of the longest as Sveta attempted to serve it out. A few championship points were saved by Sara and Roberta before Vera and Sveta could finally rejoice, the two highly credentialed singles players but an unseeded doubles pairing the 2012 Women's Doubles winners 5-7 6-4 6-3.