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British favourite Andy Murray will begin his quest for the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals title against US Open champion Juan Martin del Potro of Argentina in a Group A round robin match on Sunday at The O2 in London. Swiss ATP World Tour No. 1 Roger Federer, a four-time former titlist, will meet Fernando Verdasco of Spain in the second round robin match during the evening session at the world's biggest ever indoor tennis tournament, which will welcome over 250,000 fans.

Murray, the ATP World Tour titles leader in 2009 with six trophies, has compiled a 64-10 match record on the season. He has a 4-1 record against del Potro, who lifted his first Grand Slam title in September at the US Open and has a 51-14 season record. They have met at three ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournaments this year, at the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami, the Mutua Madrileña Madrid Open and the Rogers Cup final in Montreal.

Federer, who clinched four straight titles from five finals between 2003-2007, has a 3-0 record over Verdasco. The pair last met at the BNP Paribas Open, an ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament in March. Federer has compiled a 59-10 match record on the season, highlighted by four tour-level titles. Verdasco, who reached the Australian Open semi-finals in January, has a 52-22 season mark.

Spanish World No. 2 Rafael Nadal, who is battling Federer for the 2009 ATP World Tour Champion title and is one tour-level win shy of 400 career match wins, begins his campaign against Swede Robin Soderling in a Group B match on Monday afternoon. Nadal lost his first match at Roland Garros to Soderling in May and the two are yet to meet since then with a large part of Nadal's 2009 season hampered by injuries.

Big-hitting Robin Soderling is making his debut at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals after an injured Andy Roddick announced his withdrawal Tuesday. Soderling, who this
year became the first man to beat Rafael Nadal at Roland Garros, had been the first alternate for the world's biggest indoor tennis tournament.

Soderling, who will be the first Swede to play at the season finale since Thomas Johansson in 2002, this year finished in the Top 10 of the South African Airways ATP Rankings for the first time, highlighted by reaching his first Grand Slam final at Roland Garros and capturing his first ATP World Tour title on clay, on home soil in Bastad. He won nine matches in his first 10 tournaments through mid-May but then turned things around by compiling a 35-9 match record over the remainder of the season, which included runs to the Roland Garros final, Wimbledon fourth round and the US Open quarter-finals (losing to Roger Federer each time).

Serbian Novak Djokovic, who captured the title at the circuit climax in Shanghai last year, will challenge Nikolay Davydenko of Russian during Monday's evening session.In the doubles competition, defending champions Daniel Nestor and Nenad Zimonjic will meet Polish team Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski in the first Group A match on Sunday. During the evening session Mahesh Bhupathi and Mark Knowles face Frantisek Cermak and Michal Mertinak.

ORDER OF PLAY:

SUNDAY, 22 NOVEMBER, 2009
[1] D Nestor (CAN / N Zimonjic (SRB) vs [8] M Fyrstenberg (POL) / M Matkowski (POL)
[4] A Murray (GBR) vs [5] J del Potro (ARG)
[3] M Bhupathi (IND) / M Knowles (BAH) vs [5] F Cermak (CZE) / M Mertinak (SVK)
[1] R Federer (SUI) vs [7] F Verdasco (ESP)

MONDAY, 23 NOVEMBER, 2009
[2] B Bryan (USA) / M Bryan (USA) vs [7] M Mirnyi (BLR) / A Ram (ISR)
[2] R Nadal (ESP) vs [8] R Soderling (SWE)
[4] L Dlouhy (CZE) / L Paes (IND) vs L Kubot (POL) / O Marach (AUT)
[3] N Djokovic vs [6] N Davydenko (RUS)

File Photograph: Madrid Masters

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