Sara Errani has ousted fellow Italian Roberta Vinci in the first round of the Sydney International.

The third seed took the first set 6-4 with three breaks of serve, before wrapping up the second 6-2 after one hour and 25 minutes on court.

Errani, who now has a 6-4 head-to-head record against her compatriot, found herself evenly matched in the first set, but stepped up a gear in the second.

She created eight break points and took two of them to set up a second-round clash with either Jarmila Gajdosova or Lauren Davis.