18. 11. 2009. ·
The best eight singles players and the best eight doubles teams of the season have qualified for the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals. The world’s biggest indoor tournament begins on Sunday, November 22, at the beautiful O2 Arena in London and will be played until November 29.
The best Serbian tennis player is the third best ranked in the ATP Race standings this year, and he’ll be no.3 seed.
The tournament will be a round robin format with eight players divided in two groups of four players. Novak is placed in Group B, with Nadal, Davydenko and Soderling.
Group A
1. Roger Federer (Switzerland)
4. Andy Murray (Great Britain)
5. Juan Martin del Potro (Argentina)
7. Fernando Verdasco (Spain)
Group B
2. Rafael Nadal (Spain)
3. Novak Djokovic (Serbia)
6. Nikolay Davydenko (Russia)
8. Robin Soderling (Sweden) *
*Robin Soderling was the first alternate. The Swede will make his debut at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals after injured Andy Roddick withdrew from tournament.
Novak’s head-to-head record against the participants:
Roger Federer (5-9)
*Rafael Nadal (6-14)
Andy Murray (4-3)
Juan Martin del Potro (3-0)
*Nikolay Davydenko (2-2)
Fernando Verdasco (5-2)
*Robin Soderling (5-0)
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.
For each Round Robin win players will get 200 points, semi-final win brings 400 points, and the win in the finals is worth 500 additional points. Undefeated champion would earn 1500 points.
Novak is defending champion, he won the Tennis Masters Cup in Shanghai last year (beat Davydenko in the finals).
Novak Djokovic (1 title-2008) and Roger Federer (4 titles-2003,’04,’06 and ’07) are the only participants of this year’s Finals who have won the competition at least once.
No.1 seeds Nenad Zimonjic (Serbia) and Daniel Nestor (Canada) are defending champions in the doubles competition.
The tournament prize money is $5,070,000. Undefeated champion gets $1,630,000.
Good luck Nole!
