Ashleigh Barty and Kiki Bertens will play for a place in the Brisbane International women's doubles final following a straight-sets dismissal of No.2 seed Nicole Melichar and Yifan Xu on Wednesday.
The unseeded Australian-Dutch duo needed just 51 minutes to post a 6-3 6-2 result over the American-Chinese pairing.
Barty/Bertens were far more effective on serve, dropping just three points on first serves and three on second serves and they never faced a break point.
The win guaranteed an Australian would feature in the women's doubles final after Ajla Tomljanovic and Frenchwoman Kristina Mladenovic beat the unseeded Czech-Croatian duo, Karolina Pliskova and Donna Vekic, 6-2 6-4.
Hometown hero @ashbarty perfects the walk n sign... while making some youngster's dreams come true 😍🖊🙌 #BrisbaneTennis pic.twitter.com/Qa4V4hbKzt
- #BrisbaneTennis (@BrisbaneTennis)
target="_blank">January 8, 2020
Mladenovic beat both Barty and Tomljanovic in singles in last year's Fed Cup final and Barty in the decisive doubles.
Mladenovic/Tomljanovic were better on the big points, saving five of six break points and converting all four opportunities they earned.
There is still a chance of two more Australians remaining in the hunt for the women's doubles trophy with wildcards Priscilla Hon and Storm Sanders due to take on top-seeded Chinese Taipei-Czech pair, Su-Wei Hsieh and Barbora Strycova, for a quarter-final berth on Wednesday afternoon.
In women's singles on Wednesday, Americans Alison Riske and Danielle Collins booked quarter-final places with their respective straight-sets victories.
Riske defeated Strycova 6-3 6-4, while Collins blasted Kazkah qualifier Yulia Putintseva off the court, hitting 34 winners to one in a 6-1 6-0 drubbing.