As mentioned, Murray is opening the singles draw of the tournament against Tomas Berdych. The home support for Murray will be expecting an opening win, but it might not be so easy as Berdych leads the Brit in head-to-head matches 4-3. The Olympic champ, though, did win their last encounter en route to his success at Flushing Meadows in September. Later on in the same group, Group A, Djokovic takes on France's Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. Whilst the result will probably result in a win for the top seeded Serb, the crowd tonight will be in for great entertainment as both players have a habit of getting the crowd involved. From Group A overall, I would expect both Djokovic and Murray to eventually progress given the season's the two players have had compared to their group rivals. Having said that, I could also easily see Tsonga coming through this group as the atmosphere within the London venue may spur him on to play great tennis.
Group B contains second seed Roger Federer, Spaniard David Ferrer, 2009 US Open winner Juan Martin Del Potro and Serbia's Janko Tipsarevic. This, in my opinion, appears a very straightforward group. Federer obviously has enough talent to dispatch every member of this group with consummate ease with Del Potro finishing second. A few people may be scratching their heads as to why I haven't tipped Ferrer to qualify after his win in Paris yesterday, but he is the only player at this week's tournament to have made the semi-finals in Paris last week. Two days rest before going straight into battle and playing elite level opponents from the outset is not enough, even for a player of Ferrer's calibre.
My draw for the semis, then, probably see Djokovic, as Group A winner, take on Del Potro leaving Andy Murray to fight it out with Federer. From these two semis, I'd be likely to go with a Djokovic-Federer final much to the disappointment of the home crowd. If that is the final, my choice of champion would depend on how the two players reached the final but given the Swiss star has longer odds, I'd probably back him in the hopes of collecting more winnings from the bookies.
Also being played at the o2 Arena this week is the men's doubles tour ending championships, which contains another Brit for the crowd the cheer on as Jonathan Marray takes part alongside the man he won the Wimbledon men's double title with, Dane Frederik Nielsen. Not much is expected of the pairing, but I'm sure they will both enjoy the week and the crowd's undoubted support.
