Released Wednesday, Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic look like he got the best of the groupings.
The groupings of the competitors have been released for London's ATP World Tour Finals. If you haven't made your picks yet then you factor in who has to best who to make it out of the round robin format and into the semis.
Group A
Roger Federer
Andy Murray
Juan Martin Del Potro
Fernando Verdasco
Group B
Rafael Nadal
Novak Djokovic
Nikolay Davydenko
Robin Soderling
In Group A, Andy Murray has to like the position that he is in. Verdasco, despite having a higher seed than Soderling, is probably the weakest player in the field. Del Potro, struggling with injuries, has been drastically off form since winning the US Open and Murray has a solid record heads up against Federer. You really have to like Murray's chances of getting through Group A while Federer and Del Potro look like they will compete for the second place position.
Murray is still priced at +400 (4/1) to win the event with either Blue Square, Paddy Power, or Stan James and you should hit that price reasonably hard.
Group B, without debate, should be dominated by Djokovic (+275, 11/4, Paddy Power). He's won everything in the last couple weeks and his form is top notch. He may be setting his eyes on the coveted world number 1 spot in 2010 and winning in London next week will be a huge step toward that. However his price just keeps shortening and shortening that you have to wonder how much value is now left over.
Nadal is considered to be the second best player in Group B by odds (+900, 9/1, Boylesports) but there isn't a match-up in this group where he can be considered a significant favorite. Djokovic, Davydenko, and Soderling have each won their last match against Nadal and that makes his chances of advancing past the round robin look questionable.
The trickiest match in the Group B round robin will be between Soderling and Davydenko.
Those betting this event appear to be somewhat confused by Soderling: his odds come in as short as +1200 (12/1; William Hill) but they also come in as long as +2500 (25/1; Sportingbet). Soderling has been handling Davydenko (+1400; Sportingbet) very well on tour lately, including big wins in Grand Slams this year but their head to head encounter looks like it could be close.
However both players have long enough odds that you don't have to go with one or the other. Top up or sprinkle both Davydenko and Soderling as one of them should be in the semifinals. You would then have a capable threat with really long odds close to final and the title.
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