Serena Williams achieved the first part of a 2009 Australian Open grand slam double when she teamed up with older sister Venus to win their third women's doubles title at Melbourne Park last night.
Serena is to play the singles final against Russia's Dinara Safina on Rod Laver Arena on Saturday.
The 10th seeds, who also won the title at Melbourne Park in 2001 and 2003, beat Slovakia's Daniela Hantuchova and Ai Sugiyama of Japan 6-3 6-3 to claim their eighth grand slam doubles title.
They are now tied for third on the all-time list for grand slam doubles titles, behind the pairings of Martina Navratilova and Pam Shriver (21) and Gigi Fernandez and Natasha Zvereva (14).
With the air temperature over 40 degrees Celsius for the third successive day, organisers again closed the roof on Rod Laver Arena and the American duo hardly looked flustered, winning the first set in 38 minutes.
They continuously attacked the serve of the Slovak and Japanese, breaking on six of the eight opportunities they had, though they did not have it all their own way with their own service, being broken three times.
Their superior groundstroke power and court coverage however proved to be the difference and they hugged each other when Sugiyama's backhand volley dropped into the net.
