British pair Olivia Nicholls and Henry Patten reached the quarter-finals of the Australian Open mixed doubles with victory over the top seeds.

Nicholls and Patten wrapped up a 6-3 6-4 win over Sara Errani and Andrea Vavassori in just 69 minutes.

The Italian duo won the US Open together in September, while Errani won Olympic gold with Jasmine Paolini in the women’s doubles in Paris last summer.

Nicholls and Patten will face Russian-American pair Irina Khromacheva and Jackson Withrow or sixth seeds Hsieh Su-wei and Jan Zielinski in the last eight.

Earlier, fourth seeds Errani and Paolini fell to a 7-5 7-5 defeat by Russians Mirra Andreeva and Diana Shnaider in the second round of the women’s doubles.