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Andy Murray has been handed a hugely difficult draw for the ATP World Tour Finals, which start at London's O2 Arena on Sunday.
The British No1 has been placed in Group A along with world No1 Roger Federer, US Open champion Juan Martin del Potro and the dangerous Fernando Verdasco.
Today's draw ceremony at the London Eye put Murray (right) into by far the tougher of the two sections for the season's finale, which is being staged in London for the first time.
The group will feature a rematch of the US Open Final between Federer and Del Potro, providing the Argentine recovers fully from an abdominal strain.
Murray holds a 6-3 win-loss record against Federer, including a victory over the Swiss in the group stages of last year's tournament, then known as the Masters Cup. However, the Scot, ranked No4 in the world, lost when the pair last faced each other in Cincinnati in August.
Murray, who needs to finish in the top two in the group to qualify for the semi-finals, has a 4-1 record against Del Potro and a 7-1 head-to-head against Verdasco, although the Spaniard won in January when they met at the Australian Open and is serving well at the end of the year.
Group B will be headed by Australian Open champion Rafael Nadal, a player who could yet deny Federer the year-end No1 ranking with a good display in London.
However, the Spaniard will face a tough challenge from Serbia's Novak Djokovic, a player who beat him last week on his way to the Paris Masters title. Russian Nikolay Davydenko and Sweden's Robin Soderling, a late replacement for injured American Andy Roddick, make up Group B.
More than 260,000 tickets have already been sold for the tournament.
Reader views (2)
What is he on about? Murray's draw, hard? Lol.
First of all 2 out of the 3 other players in Murray's group are out of form and are having let downs due to their summer sucess (Federer and Del Potro).
Secondly, Murray has a positive record against all of them, his only loss to Verdasco coming at the Australian open- a grand slam in which Murray plays poorly in and when Verdasco played lights out tennis, his only loss to Del Potro was on clay-he's weakest surface. Murray's last loss to Federer was because he nursing the wrist injury which started in Cincinnati, if he was 100% healthy he would have won.
Thirdly Verdasco, you'd expect him to play well with his ability but there is a question mark about him mentally, he will most likely concede all of his matches with unforced errors if he thinks too much about the occasion and if it's a must win match.
This is an easy draw for Murray out of all four he's the one in the best shape and with more matches under his belt, He will advance 3-0, all straight sets wins. He's lucky not to be in the group as Djokovic and Davydenko. Djokovic would pulverize him in straight sets and Davydenko is a player who could blow hot once in a while and is capable of beating Murray like he did last year.
- Federer And Nadal Fan, London, 18/11/2009 14:15
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Dear Mr Chris Jones,
Murray out of luck? Lets see, group A: Federer - beaten badly in the last couple of tournaments, 'dangerous' Verdasco - only just qualified, Del Potro - hardly did anything since his US Open win. Come on - if he was in group B I wonder what would be the excuse then.
- Donna R, London, UK, 18/11/2009 13:58
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