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Local favourite Andy Murray attended the draw ceremony for the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals, the world's biggest ever indoor tennis tournament, at the London Eye on Wednesday. ATP World Tour No. 1 and four-time former champion Roger Federer and Murray feature in Group A at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals, while No. 2-ranked Rafael Nadal and defending champion Novak Djokovic will headline Group B.

The tournament is a round robin format event with eight players divided in two groups of four players each. The eight seeds were determined by the South African Airways ATP Rankings of Monday, 16 November, 2009. The top seed was placed in Group A and the second seed in Group B with players seeded three and four, five and six, seven and eight, drawn in pairs with the first drawn placed in Group A.

The full line-up for Group A sees US Open champion Juan Martin del Potro of Argentina and Spaniard Fernando Verdasco join Federer and Murray, while 2008 runner-up Nikolay Davydenko of Russia and Swede Robin Soderling complete Group B with Nadal and Djokovic. Soderling is actually no.9 in the world rankings and came into this event as a replacement for American Andy Roddick, who failed to recover in time from a knee injury that has plagued him for the latter part of this season. For a glance at who the smart money is on at the ATP World Tour Finals check out the tennis betting section on BetUS.com.

"It's going to be great," commented Murray. "Obviously I'm looking forward to it. It's a new tournament for London. To get a chance to play against Federer, maybe Nadal here, the crowd is going to be great with over 250,000 tickets sold so I'm really looking forward to it. It's a great group of players, probably the strongest we've had in quite a few years."

"Whoever you draw is going to be tough," said Murray, who reached the semi-finals in Shanghai last year. "Obviously I look forward to playing Roger. I've played Juan a few times on the tour recently and also had a close match recently with Verdasco indoors in Valencia. It's a tough group but if I play well I think I have a good chance of qualifying."

Federer, who captured four titles from five straight finals between 2003-2007, will also have the chance to avenge his US Open final defeat to Del Potro. Djokovic, this season's ATP World Tour match wins leader, faces stiff competition if he is to defend his title from Davydenko, in a repeat of the 2008 final, and Nadal, who the Serbian beat in the semi-finals of the BNP Paribas Masters in Paris last week. In another intriguing clash, Nadal will meet debutant Soderling for the first time since the Swede handed Nadal his first-ever defeat at Roland Garros in May.

The round robin event will determine the four players for the semi-finals with the format thereafter being an elimination competition. The winner of each group will be placed in separate semi-final brackets, with the top player in Group A playing the runner-up in Group B, and vice versa.

Federer and Nadal are also in a battle to be crowned 2009 ATP World Tour Champion. Nadal currently trails Federer by 945 points in the South African Airways 2009 ATP Rankings, but with 1,500 points available for an undefeated champion at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals there is all to play for. The tournament kicks off on Sunday 22nd Novemeber at the O2 Arena in London.

The Groups:

A: Roger Federer, Andy Murray, Juan Martin del Potro, Fernando Verdasco

B: Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Nikolay Davydenko, Robin Soderling

File Photograph: Madrid Masters

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