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Kings of the court

The stage is set for the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals where the world's top eight tennis players will battle in the prestigious season-ending finale being held for the first time at London's O2 Arena.

  • Agencies
  • Published: 22:19 November 21, 2009
  • Group A: Roger Federer
    Group A: Roger Federer

    Switzerland
    Federer was the second player to qualify for the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals after his dramatic 16-14 win in the fifth set against Andy Roddick at Wimbledon this year. The victory earned him a record-breaking 15th Grand Slam singles title and also helped him reclaim the No 1 spot in the South African Airways 2009 ATP Rankings. The Swiss comes in with a distinct record in this competition after winning it back-to-back in 2003 and 2004 before being stopped briefly by David Nalbandian in 2005. But Federer hit back to win two more times in 2006 and 2007. Last year in Shanghai he failed to advance past the group stages for the first time after losing to Andy Murray.

  • Group A: Andy Murray
    Group A: Andy Murray

    Great Britain
    British No 1 Andy Murray was the third player to qualify for the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals after making his second appearance at the prestigious season climax. Murray has had a wonderful 2009 breaking the Federer-Nadal four-year stronghold at the top of the rankings while also reaching a career-high of No 2 in the middle of August following his fourth ATP World Tour Masters 1000 title at the Rogers Cup in Montreal.
    After successfully defending his title in Qatar at the start of the season, the 22-year-old continued to make an impact at ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournaments after ending second best at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells and then going on to win at the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami. Last year, Murray progressed through to the semifinals with wins against Roddick, Giles Simon and Federer, but fell short of reaching the final when he lost to Nikolay Davydenko.

  • Group A: Juan Martin Del Potro
    Group A: Juan Martin Del Potro

    Argentina
    Argentine Juan Martin del Potro was the fifth player to qualify as he makes his second successive appearance at this prestigious event. Del Potro moved into the Top 5 of the South African Airways ATP Rankings again after capturing his first Grand Slam title at the US Open by dethroning Federer to become the fifth youngest man to win the US Open in the Open Era. Del Potro made his debut at Shanghai last year, but failed to advance past the round-robin group stage after winning just one of his three matches.

  • Group A: Fernando Verdasco
    Group A: Fernando Verdasco

    Spain
    Spain's Fernando Verdasco became the eighth and final singles player to qualify for the season-ender and this is his debut year for this competition. Mentored on a part-time basis by Darren Cahill along with fitness guru Gil Reyes since the end of last season, Verdasco has had the best season so far in his career.
    The 25-year-old confirmed his spot at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals when his two chief rivals, Robin Soderling and Jo-Wilfred Tsonga, lost their quarterfinal matches at the BNP Paribas Masters, the final ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament in Paris last week.

  • Group B: Rafael Nadal
    Group B: Rafael Nadal

    Spain
    Spain's Rafael Nadal was the first player to qualify for his fifth straight appearance at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals. He started the 2009 season in red-hot form when he captured his sixth Grand Slam title at the Australian Open, which also represented his first major hard-court crown. However, injury kept him down until he made a welcome return to the ATP World Tour circuit in August after recovering from tendinitis in both his knees. Despite struggling with an abdominal strain, he reached the semifinals of the US Open. Nadal is making his third appearance at the season-finale, having reached the 2006 and 2007 semifinals. He was unable to compete in 2005 (left foot injury) and in 2008 (right knee tendinitis).

  • Group B: Novak Djokovic
    Group B: Novak Djokovic

    Serbia
    Serbia's Novak Djokovic was the fourth player to qualify making his third successive appearance at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals. Djokovic, who has been in the Top 4 of the South African Airways ATP Rankings since July 2007, and this year has won five ATP World Tour titles from an ATP World Tour-best 10 finals. The 22- year-old's success story for this season started with his first title at the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championship in February. After failing to win any of his three matches on debut in 2007, Djokovic went on to win the title last year when he defeated Russia's Nikolay Davydenko 6-1, 7-5 in the final last year.

  • Group B: Nikolay Davydenko
    Group B: Nikolay Davydenko

    Russia
    Russia's Nikolay Davydenko is probably one of the most under-rated players of the modern era. But he has the capacity to surprise and that will be the strong point for him as he heads into this week's season-ender at The O2 arena. As the world No 7, Davydenko was the seventh player to secure a place at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals alongside Federer, Nadal, Murray, Djokovic, Del Potro and Roddick. This is the fifth straight year at the season-ending tournament for the 28-year-old Russian, who went on to lose against Djokovic in last year’s final in Shanghai.

  • Group B: Robin Soderling
    Group B: Robin Soderling

    Sweden
    This will be the Swede's debut tournament after he ended at a career-high No 9 on the South African Airways 2009 ATP Rankings. He compiled a personal-best 47-19 match record on the season, highlighted by reaching his first Grand Slam final at Roland Garros and capturing his first ATP World Tour title on clay. He reached the quarterfinals or better in 11 of his 22 tour-level tournaments and earned a spot for this week's season-ender after Andy Roddick pulled out. In Grand Slam play Soderling posted career-best performances with a fourth round appearance at Wimbledon and the quarterfinals at the US Open, losing to Federer both times. He also won one ATP Challenger Tour title at Sunrise, Florida when he defeated Berdych in March.

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