{"id":5445,"date":"2013-01-29T09:42:27","date_gmt":"2013-01-29T01:42:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/?p=5445"},"modified":"2013-01-29T09:42:27","modified_gmt":"2013-01-29T01:42:27","slug":"barty-and-dellacqua-downed-in-final","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/news\/2013\/01\/29\/barty-and-dellacqua-downed-in-final","title":{"rendered":"Barty and Dellacqua downed in final"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The fairytale run of Australian wildcards Ashleigh Barty and Casey Dellacqua has come to an end with the pair going down 6-2 3-6 6-2 to top seeded Italians Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci in the Australian Open 2013 women\u2019s doubles final at Rod Laver Arena on Friday.<\/p>\n

It is the Italians\u2019 third major title together, following their 2012 French Open and US Open triumphs, and betters their runner-up finish at last year\u2019s Australian Open.<\/p>\n

Barty and Dellacqua had been the surprise packet of the tournament, storming through the draw without dropping a set and becoming the first all-Australian pair to reach the final since 1977.<\/p>\n

At just 16 years of age and playing in her first Grand Slam final, Barty showed no nerves early, hitting a volley winner on the opening point of the match.<\/p>\n

The more experienced Italian pair soon got on top though, breaking Dellacqua\u2019s serve twice as they took the opening set in 29 minutes.<\/p>\n

Vinci and Errani had too many answers for the Australian duo, committing only three unforced errors for the set compared to their opponents\u2019 14.<\/p>\n

Dellacqua again dropped serve early in the second set, and it looked as though Errani and Vinci were closing in on a comfortable win. But the Australians dug deep, breaking back in the next game to get back into the match.<\/p>\n

The confidence of Dellacqua and Barty was growing, and they broke Errani\u2019s serve in the eighth game to grab a 5-3 lead before Barty served out the set.<\/p>\n

The Australians had lifted, and the crowd was being treated to some spectacular doubles action, with all four players impressing with their net play and some brilliantly well-placed lobs.<\/p>\n

With the crowd now getting behind them, Barty and Dellacqua broke in the opening game of the final set, and it looked like an upset could be on the cards.<\/p>\n

The Italians had other plans though, breaking straight back. Their experience shone through as they won five of the last six games to take it 6-2 in 30 minutes.<\/p>\n

Barty, who showed great poise throughout the match, said she was disappointed not to take the title.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt felt like we were really close in that match, a lot closer than the score suggested,\u201d she said. \u201cA point here and there and I think that third set could have really turned.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dellacqua congratulated Errani and Vinci, the first all-Italian team to win the Australian Open women\u2019s title, on their victory.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re obviously the No.\u00a01 team in the world. They\u2019re there for a reason,\u201d Dellacqua said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The fairytale run of Australian wildcards Ashleigh Barty and Casey Dellacqua has come to an end with the pair going down 6-2 3-6 6-2 to top seeded Italians Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci in the Australian Open 2013 women\u2019s doubles final at Rod Laver Arena on Friday. It is the Italians\u2019 third major title together, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5894,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5445","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5445","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5894"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5445"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5445\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}