Today he will appear on the daytime TV show Loose Women, another reminder that the buildup to next week's season-end blockbuster is not quite the same as it would be for Wimbledon. The Scot being cross-examined by feisty females will remove him from his comfort zone, but then so would the proposed promotional alternative of an audience with Graham Norton.
Yet, there was still an unusual sense of anticipation as the names were pulled out for the two groups of four players who will battle each other at the O2 Arena for places in the semifinals.
On the face of it, the British No 1 did himself few favours as he sided himself with Roger Federer, Juan Martin Del Potro and Fernando Verdasco, the highest-ranked combination possible.
Closer examination, however, suggests that this may not be the ‘group of death' it first appears, with the clear exception of Federer being a more difficult proposition indoors than his opposite number Rafael Nadal. Murray, likely to play his first match on Sunday afternoon, said: ‘Rafa is always tough because he's such a competitor but people who saw his matches in Paris say that he was struggling a little and he said he wasn't that happy with the way he is playing, either.
So in some ways it would have been nicer to be in his group but then I think these courts will suit him quite well.'
Otherwise Murray, who performed the ceremony in a pod along with American doubles team Bob and Mike Bryan, does not have too much to be unhappy about. he was either going to get Del Potro or Nikolay Davydenko, the fifth and sixth-ranked entrants, and might settle for the former, despite him being US Open champion and having greater firepower.
—Daily Mail
