Groups and order of play released for the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals – Tennis News
Finally, the suspense was revealed on Tuesday, with the groups and order of play announced for the Barclays ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) World Tour Finals. Eight of the season’s top performers have their berths in
the circuit grand finale, about to start from 20th of this month on the indoor hard courts of the O2 Arena in London.
The exciting field of the mega event is divided into two groups, Group A having the top seed Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray, David Ferrer and Tomas Berdych while the contenders in Group B are the defending champion Roger Federer,
Rafael Nadal, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Mardy Fish. Each player will have to go one-on-one with three other Round-Robin opponents to qualify for the semi-finals and then the final of the event.
The Swiss maestro enters the field at the O2 as one of the hot favourites. The defending champion Federer is eyeing to bag his sixth ATP World Tour Finals title and if he succeeds in doing so, the Swiss will become the only man
in the history of the Open Era to bag six titles at the year-ending mega event. Federer’s title count at the Tour Finals is currently tied with the legendary Ivan Llendl and Pete Sampras at five.
On day one, Federer will take off the proceedings in the opening match against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, the tall Frenchman who has registered two back-to-back victories over the fourth seed Swiss. Federer outplayed Tsonga in the final
of the Paris Masters last Sunday to lead 6-3 over the world number six.
Federer’s match is followed by the second seeded Nadal’s encounter with America’s number one tennis player, Mardy Fish. Despite of being the Top-3 in men’s rankings for a number of past seasons, the Spaniard has never won the ATP
World Tour Finals, making him the most desperate contender for the tile this year. He leads 7-1 over Fish, who is coming out of multiple injuries this year.
Monday evening will kick off with the world number three Andy Murray taking on the fifth seed David Ferrer, who trails 3-5 against the superior ranked Briton. Murray has taken down Ferrer three times in the current year and was
riding an 18-match winning streak before falling in Paris.
The top seed Serb and the winner of 2008 edition of the ATP World Tour Finals, Djokovic will get his first matchup later in the night, taking on Tomas Berdych, someone he has already defeated seven out of eight times on prior occasions.
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