By Ali Ahmed
KARACHI, Pakistan (TheSportsNEXT) November 4, 2012: The eight highest-ranked men’s singles players will converge in London from Monday in the ATP World Tour Finals where six times champion Roger Federer will defend his title, yet again.
Let’s take a look at the history of the tournament as well as the playing conditions and points system.
History, Rules and Points System
This event began back in 1970 at Tokyo and was originally known as the Masters Grand Prix. Stan Smith of USA became the first Singles Champion and Arthur Asher along with Stan smith became first doubles champion.
ATP world Tour Finals is the only ATP event played in a round-robin format where eight players contest for the laurels in two different groups. However, under the rules, the player who is ranked number eight in the ATP Champion's Race world rankings does not have a guaranteed spot. If a player who wins one of the year's Grand Slam events finishes the year ranked outside the top eight but still within the top 20, he would have been included in the event instead of the eighth-ranked player. If two players outside the top eight won Grand Slam events, the higher placed player in the world rankings would take the final spot in the Tennis Masters Cup.
Player who wins Round Robin Match is awarded 200 points while winner of Semi Final and Final gets 400 points and 500 points, respectively. It means Undefeated Champion gets 1500 ATP Rankings Points.
Most ATP World Tour Finals Titles
Last year Swiss Player Roger Federer won this title for a record sixth time as he broke Pete Sampras’s record of winning most number of ATP World Tour Finals titles.
Roger Federer 6
Pete Sampras 5
Ivan Lendl 5
In 2012, Tennis fans will miss the current world number four Rafael Nadal who has been out of circuit after Wimbledon shock defeat due to injury and made way for Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia. Rafael Nadal who has a phenomenal ATP career but is yet to clinch the ATP World Tour Finals title and once again he has been made to wait for another year.
The following top eight players have been divided into two pools of four players.
GROUP A
Novak Djokovic (Serbia)
Andy Murray (Great Britain)
Tomas Berdych (Czech Republic)
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (France)
GROUP B
Roger Federer (Switzerland)
David Ferrer (Spain)
Juan Martin del Potro (Argentine)
Janko Tipsarevic (Serbia)
Roger Federer qualified for the 11thyear in succession and will start his voyage for seventh title against Serbian Janko Tipsarevic on Tuesday. While Andy Murray seeking to win first ATP World Tour Finals in front of home crowd will meet Tomas Berdych on Monday.
Players Records
Group A
Novak Djokovic will come at number one position on Monday and will finish with top ranking for the second successive year.
Novak Djokovic vs Tomas Berdych
Novak Djokovic has very good record against Tomas Berdych of 10-1 and 2-0 in ATP World Tour Finals.
Novak Djokovic vs Jo-Wilfried Tsonga
At the same time Novak Djokovic has slim advantage over Jo-Wilfried Tsonga with head-to-head record of 8-5 records in his favor but interestingly he lost only match of ATP World Tour Finals against him in 2008.
Novak Djokovic vs Andy Murray While record against Andy Murray is also close, so many interesting matches have been witnessed between these two players over the years. Novak has 9-7 record against Murray but they never met in ATP World Tour Finals and this year both players came as big rivals and have a 3-3 record.
Andy Murray vs Jo-Wilfried Tsonga
World number three Andy Murray has strong record against French Player Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of 6-2 and has won the last five matches against him and will meet him first time in the ATP World Tour Finals.
Andy Murray vs Tomas Berdych
Andy Murray has 3-4 record against Tomas Berdych and is looking forward to meet the Czech player for the first time in the ATP World Tour Finals.
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga vs Tomas Berdych
Tomas Berdych has 4-1 record against French player Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. Both players met only once in the ATP Finals last year where the Frenchman had the last laugh.Both players can remove top players with their strong performance.
So Novak Djokovic has advantage over all the three competitors in his group but at the same time Tomas Berdych can’t be ignored as he has good record over Andy Murray and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and is seeking to win his first ATP World Tour Finals.
ATP World Tour Finals Record of Group A players are:
Novak Djokovic 9-9
Andy Murray 7-5
Tomas Berdych 3-4
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 4-4
Group B
Interestingly Roger Federer lost just one match whenever he became champion in this Event. In 2007 he lost to Fernando Gonzalez in round-robin stage.
Roger Federer vs David Ferrer
Roger Federer boasts an exceptional record against David Ferrer and has won all the 13 matches between them and won two matches in the ATP World Tour Finals.
Roger Federer vs Juan Martin del Potro
Swiss player has a 13-3 record against Juan Martin del Potro but lost his only match against him at the ATP World Tour Finals in 2009.
Roger Federer vs Janko Tipsarevic
Roger Fedeer has a remarkable 5-0 record against Janko Tipsarevic and will meet him first time in the ATP World Tour Finals.
David Ferrer vs Juan Martin del Potro
David Ferrer has 5-2 record against Juan Martin del Potro but they have never met each other in the ATP World Tour Finals.
David Ferrer vs Janko Tipsarevic
Spanish player has 3-1 record against Janko Tipsarevic and is looking to meet him first time in the ATP World Tour Finals.
Juan Martin del Potro vs Janko Tipsarevic
Juan Martin del Potro has 3-0 record against Janko Tipsarevic and will meet him for the first time in the ATP World Tour Finals.
ATP World Tour Finals Record of Group B players are:
Roger Federer 39-7
David Ferrer 6-6
Juan Martin del Potro 4-4
Janko Tipsarevic 1-1
