Roger Federer has been drawn in a difficult pool in the 2014 ATP World Tour Finals, which begins on Sunday 9 November through to 16.
The Swiss No. 1 will face three-time final showdown semi-finalist and home favourite, Andy Murray, at the O2 Arena, London in Group B. Milos Raonic, who became the first Canadian to qualify for the season-ending tournament last week in Paris, is also drawn in the group, which also has Japan’s Kei Nishikori.
Top seed Novak Djokovic is now a firm favourite for the year-end No. 1 ranking having been drawn in Group A along with Australian Open champion Stanislas Wawrinka, US Open champion Marin Cilic and Czech’s Tomas Berdych, who will be making his fifth successive appearance in the final showdown.
The top two players in each group will progress to the semi-finals with the standings based initially on match wins, but often times is decided based on percentage of games won or even world rankings as the final tie-breaker.
Federer is on the quest for the year-end world No. 1 status and also his seventh triumph at the World Tour Finals.
British No. 1 Murray and 17-time Grand Slam winner Federer have each won 11 of their career meetins.
Federer dominates a career head-to-head meeting with Raonic 7-1, his only defeat by the No. 8-ranked Raonic coming in the quarter-finals of the Paris Masters last week.
Federer won his last meeting with 5th-ranked Nishikori in Halle, Germany, to tie their career head-to-head meeting 2-2 en route to his seventh success at the Gerry Weber Open in June.
Croatia’s World No. 9 Cilic will be making his debut appearance in the tournament, which starts on Sunday.
“It’s a very difficult group, big hitters, very exciting group,” said Raonic. “Novak is showing he is really in good form. It’s going to be very entertaining.”
World No. 3 Rafael Nadal will miss the tournament after opting to have an appendix surgery.
