Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini move onto the doubles final with a6-3, 1-6, 10-4 win over Sofia Kenin and Bethanie Mattek-Sands

The No. 5 seed Italian doubles team of Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini will play in the final match of the China Open after defeating Americans Sofia Kenin and Bethanie Mattek-Sands 6-3, 1-6, 10-4 in the semifinals on Saturday. It was their first meeting since the Miami Open in March.

Errani and Paolini, who won the gold medal at the Paris Olympics, held their ground as the more solid team throughout the first set. In the fourth game, Errani was broken after her teammate Paolini smacked a ball straight into her back. The pair laughed it off and pushed forward into a three-game run that gave them a 5-2 lead. They lost the next game but won the set by breaking Kenin’s serve after coming to deuce in the ninth game.

In the second set, the Americans came back with a renewed vigor. Kenin and Mattek-Sands had better placement and returns, but the set was defined by some beautiful rallies. The American pair only lost one game, when their opponents broke Mattek-Sands’ serve in the fourth game, bringing the set to 3-1. They went on to win the following three games to take the set 6-1, winning the set point after another excellent rally.

Errani and Paolini met the increased energy of the Americans with their own elevated aggression during the tie-break. They began to find more opportunities to use their versatility on the court, both succeeding in the back court and at the net to dominate over their opponents. This is where Kenin and Mattek-Sands often came up short. Kenin found comfort in the backcourt offering up hard-hit returns while Mattek-Sands took care of the net play, placing balls in hard to reach places. But whenever the two Americans were forced to switch places, the Italians pounced, using their dynamic movement to gain an advantage.

“We did a great job today; it was not easy,” Errani said after the match.

Paolini is also a successful singles player, currently ranked World No. 5. Errani has long focused on doubles after reaching the Top 10 in 2012. In the final match on Sunday they will face either Hao-Ching Chan and Veronika Kudermetova, or Elisabetta Cocciaretto and Liudmila Samsonova.

—Reporting by CJ Christy