BEIJING -- No.5 seeds Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini became the first Italian champions at the China Open on Sunday, defeating No.7 seeds Chan Hao-Ching and Veronika Kudermetova 6-4, 6-4 in the doubles final. 

Beijing is Errani and Paolini's third Hologic WTA Tour team title of the season and fifth overall, having also won Linz, a WTA 1000 on home soil in Rome, and Olympic gold in Paris. Beijing is their biggest hard-court title as a team.

"It's always special to win a tournament, especially 1000," Paolini said. "We are really, really happy. We put so much effort this year to play doubles. So we are just happy. It's nice to win a tournament."

Former doubles No.1 Errani, 37, has now secured 31 Hologic WTA Tour doubles titles. Beijing is Paolini's fifth career doubles title. The duo also made their first Grand Slam final this year, falling to Katerina Siniakova and Coco Gauff at Roland Garros. 

Errani and Paolini entered Beijing at No.5 on the PIF Race to the WTA Finals and looking to lock down qualification for the season-ending event. 

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Errani and Paolini lost two sets en route to their second WTA 1000 of the season, scoring wins over Cristina Bucsa and Monica Niculescu, Aldila Sutjiadi and Leylah Fernandez, Beatriz Haddad-Maia and Laura Siegemund, and Miami champions Sofia Kenin and Bethanie Mattek-Sands. 

Played in front of a near-capacity crowd, Sunday's final was decided by the narrowest of margins. After an early exchange of service breaks, Errani and Paolini won a pivotal deciding point to quell a surge from the No.7 seeds and hold to 4-3.

The set stayed on serve until the final game. With Kudermetova serving on deciding point, Errani patrolled the net to slam down a pair of overheads to win the point and the set. 

Holding serve was challenging for both teams in the second set, which featured just one service hold. Errani and Paolini earned a chance to serve out the win at 5-3 but were broken at 15.

Like the first set, the second set was decided by a deciding point on Kudermetova's serve. The Italians did not need to hit a ball this time, as Kudermetova double-faulted to end the match.