Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Juan Martin del Potro have moved into the final of the Erste Bank Open 2011. The number two seed Del Potro had a tricky match against South African Kevin Anderson and top seed Tsona didn’t have to work quite as hard in his match against German qualifier Daniel Brands.
Juan Martin del Potro served 18 aces against Anderson in Saturday’s semi-final. The Argentine took the first set 6-4 and Anderson won the second 6-3. The third set stayed on serve until del Potro broke serve at 4-5. “I was focused as I kept trying to break his serve, and I did in the last game of the match,” the former world number four said.
Top seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga won in straight sets today to book himself into the Vienna final on Sunday. The Frenchman downed Daniel Brands 6-2 7-6 (4). The world number nine has had a successful season with a win in Metz and being the runner up in Brisbane and the Shanghai Rolex Masters.
Tsonga and del Potro are both looking to qualify for the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals in London in November. The Frenchman is currently on number eight and del Potro is at number 13 in the year-to-date rankings that determine who will earn a spot in the prestigious London event.
Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Andy Murray, Roger Federer and David Ferrer have already qualififed for the event. There are three more spots to be filled and it’s going to be a tense battle in Paris next week for the players trying to collect as many points as possible.
The Bryan Brothers are continuing their impressive form this week. In Saturday’s semi-final we saw a comfortable win for the Bryans over Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski 6-3 6-2. The Polish team could have done with the win to secure their spot in London. They are currently at number eight in the YTD race.
The Bryans will square off with the number two seeds Max Mirnyi and Daniel Nestor in Sunday’s final. The world number three ranked team left Juan Martin del Potro and Radek Stepanek behind winning 6-3 7-6 (2).
The winner of the doubles event will share €31 850 and earn 250 points. Both doubles teams in tomorrow’s final are already through to the end of year competition.
Topics: Jo Wilfried Tsonga, Juan Martin Del Potro