The Australians cruised into the final with a 21-17, 21-16 win against Brazilians Carolina Solberg Salgado and Maria Antonelli. United States pair Stockman and Larsen knocked out women’s third seeds Agatha Bednarczuk and Eduarda Santos Lisboa from Brazil with a commanding 21-11, 21-19 victory.
Bednarczuk and Santos Lisboa beat compatriots Salgado and Antonelli 23-21, 21-16 to secure bronze in the third-place playoff. Anders Mol and Christian Sørum sealed a fourth successive win at the four-star Warsaw stop as they reached tomorrow’s semi-finals in the men’s draw. The world number one Norwegian pair defeated Brazilian pair Pedro Solberg and Vitor Goncalves Felipe 21-15, 25-23 in round two before seeing off Italian sixth seeds Paolo Nicolai and Daniele Lupo 21-19, 21-17 in the quarter-finals. Mol and Sørum will face Russia’s Viacheslav Krasilnikov and Oleg Stoyanovskiy after they knocked out seventh seeds Cherif Younousse and Ahmed Tijan of Qatar in a 22-20, 21-19 quarter-final victory.
“We have been battling some tight sets here, and now we’re just delighted to be in the semi-finals,” said Mol. “I am proud that we battled it through in these hot conditions. “We beat many good teams and want to take a medal.” Third seeds Krasilnikov and Stoyanovskiy had won a second-round clash with Brazilians Alison Cerutti and Alvaro Morais Filho 21-14, 21-16. The men’s other semi-final will feature Russian compatriots Konstantin Semenov and Ilya Leshukov after they recorded emphatic victories in the knockout stage. In round two, they cruised to a 21-15, 21-18 win against Spanish pair Pablo Herrera Allepuz and Adrian Gavira Collado before winning their quarter-final 21-16, 21-15 against Martins Plavins and Edgars Toc from Latvia.
Brazilian pair Evandro Goncalves Oliveira Junior and Bruno Oscar Schmidt will be their opponents after they fought back to defeat Latvians Aleksandrs Samoilovs and Janis Smedins 24-26, 26-24, 15-7. If we scrutinize the details of the 2011 tennis season, it is pretty easy to deduce that this season belongs to Novak Djokovic – the World No.1 Serbian, who won three Grand Slams and five ATP World Tour Masters titles in 2011. Djokovic has thoroughly dominated the proceedings this season, and obviously, he is the most favorite contender to clinch the title at this year’s ATP World Tour Finals. Let’s look at the top eight contenders who will battle it out in London from 20th Nov.
Group A:
Novak Djokovic: World No. 1 Novak Djokovic represents Group A. The Serb has seen a phenomenal rise in form and rankings in 2011 by producing breathtaking tennis – on a consistent note. Djokovic has won three Grand Slam titles this year in Melbourne, Wimbledon, and New York and has an astounding 69-4 win-loss record for the season. Overall, Djokovic has claimed ten titles so far in the new season. His best outing at the ATP World Tour Finals was a title victory in 2008.
