Errani, Paolini top Andreeva, Shnaider to return to Roland Garros doubles final
In a rematch of last summer's Olympic gold-medal final, Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini won again and returned to the Roland Garros women's doubles final.
No. 2-seeded Italians Errani and Paolini reached the French Open doubles championship match for the second straight year after dismissing No. 4 seeds Mirra Andreeva and Diana Shnaider 6-0, 6-1 on Friday.
"We did, I think, a perfect match," Errani said afterwards. "Didn't miss many balls today, and we played really good. ... They're for sure one of the best teams on clay right now and in the world. We [prepared] very good, I think."
Errani and Paolini needed to fight back from a set down to take the gold medal from Andreeva and Shnaider at last year's Paris Olympics -- which was also held at Roland Garros.
This time around, though, Errani and Paolini dominated play from the start, and they needed only 61 minutes to prevail on Court Simonne-Mathieu. The Italians now lead Andreeva/Shnaider 4-1 in the team head-to-head.
"We played in the Olympics, we play in Doha, we played in Australia," Paolini said. "Many times. Every time it's tough, you know. It's tough playing with them mentally, also, because they're playing really well."
In Friday's match, though, Errani and Paolini never faced a break point. By contrast, Andreeva and Shnaider stared down 16 break points in the clash, and dropped serve six times.
The Italians will now try to go one better in Paris than they did last year. They fell to Coco Gauff and Katerina Siniakova in last year's Roland Garros women's doubles final.
Despite Errani and Paolini's proficiency on tour as a team over the last year -- they have won four WTA 1000 titles to go along with their gold medal -- they have not yet won a Grand Slam title as a duo.
In fact, Paolini is still seeking her first Grand Slam title in any discipline. Along with her Roland Garros doubles final, Paolini also reached two Slam finals in singles last year, but was unable to convert any of them into a title.
Errani, though, has a Career Grand Slam in women's doubles. The 38-year-old won all four majors alongside Roberta Vinci between 2012 and 2014.
Errani has also won two mixed doubles Slams with another Italian, Andrea Vavassori. The first came at last year's US Open. The second came yesterday, here in Paris.
Errani and Paolini will take on Anna Danilina of Kazakhstan and Aleksandra Krunic of Serbia in Sunday's final. In an all-unseeded semifinal, Danilina and Krunic outlasted Ulrikke Eikeri of Norway and Eri Hozumi of Japan 6-7(5), 6-3, 7-5.
Danilina and Krunic were down early breaks in both the second and third sets, but they battled back each time before prevailing in a 2-hour and 46-minute barnburner on Friday.
At 5-5, 30-30 in the third set, Danilina carved an overhead with so much spin that it left Eikeri chasing down the surprisingly short ball to no avail. Krunic polished off that game with a winning volley to break for 6-5. In the next game, another superb reflex volley by Krunic sent them into the final.
This is Danilina and Krunic's first event as a pairing since 2022. Technically, the team has now reached consecutive finals -- before this tournament, their most recent result together was a runner-up finish at 2022 Cleveland.
Nearly three years later, they picked up where they left off, and posted a huge upset in the quarterfinals by beating No. 1 seeds Katerina Siniakova and Taylor Townsend.
Now Danilina and Krunic are back into another championship match, and it is Krunic's first trip into a Grand Slam final, in any discipline. The 32-year-old Serbian is a former Top 40 player in singles; she has won one WTA singles title (2018 's-Hertogenbosch) and reached the Round of 16 at the 2014 US Open.
Danilina has previous Grand Slam final experience, including a title. The 29-year-old won the 2023 US Open mixed doubles championship with Harri Heliovaara, and she was a women's doubles runner-up at the 2022 Australian Open partnering Beatriz Haddad Maia.
