Group A: Nadal, Djokovic, Berdych and Roddick

Group B: Federer, Soderling, Murray, Ferrer.

Not too bad a draw! Murray still hasn't played Djokovic in 2010!

Roddick is nothing to be worried about indoors anymore. His performance against Soderling in Paris was laughably bad. I couldn't see Andy losing to him.

And remember Ferrer reached the final of the Masters Cup a few years back, something Roddick has never achieved.

In all honestly though the draw here is fairly irrelevant.

steven wrote:

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Could be worse ... I think it would have been better to get Rafa than Fed indoors, but being outside the top four seeds should mean he won't have to play Fed the day before the semis this time, I think.

The most important thing was to draw Ferrer rather than Duckboy out of the bottom two seeds, and he's got that.

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Well, Andy won't have to play Fed the day before the semis because Group B is in action on the Sunday so then presumably Tuesday and Thursday   

Sunday's two winners should play each other on the Tuesday so it is Sunday's results that will determine the order of the remaining matches rather than seedings. 

Anyway, Steven have you offered your statistical services for the final group matches so that they might know in advance the crucial scores that effect who goes through to the semi finals rather than be still trying to confirm it half an hour after play has finished ?   

-- Edited by indiana on Tuesday 16th of November 2010 02:27:02 PM

Why is everyone saying Muzza has the easier group ?
Fed/ Nadal surely a 50/50 choice given Fed's record at the tour final and Nadal's lack of a recent outing.
Djoker/Sod again surely a 50/50 choice given that Sod won Paris, played well here last year and the fact Nole must be looking at the DC final as his main priority.
Ferrer/Roddick surely an out of sorts Roddick would be the easier challenge here given that Ferrer just won Valencia.

Sorry guys, but I am slightly confused as to where everyone is saying Muzza has the easier group.  I don't see that above anyway.

My own view is that I would have probably slightly preferred the other one. I'd prefer Rafa to Roger at this stage of the year on indoor hard.  Djoko / Sod not much in it, but with Sod certainly in form and as Phil indicates Djoko also no doubt having the DC Final on his mind I would slightly prefer Djoko. The only one I would personally have in Andy's favour is Ferrer rather than Roddick.

Re Ferrer, yes he did beat Andy twice in the spring, but very relevantly both were indeed on clay.  Coming immediately after the absolute worst of the bad of Andy's season when he could barely hit a ball in court vs Kohlschreiber in Monte Carlo, his  6 - 3  6 - 4  loss in Rome and  7 - 5  6 - 3 loss in Madrid were actually the signs of maybe an upturn in form which did continue.  Ferrer in those few clay weeks was in semis in Monte Carlo, Barcelona and Rome and in the final in Rome.  He did indeed win in Valencia and is not to be taken lightly, I just feel Roddick is probably up for this and if he brings in good form he is a bit more of a danger.

With two qualifying slightly negating what i see as the Roger vs Rafa disadvantage, I would just prefer Berdych's group, though probably not loads in it and really form in the week may not anyway be as we anticpate.

-- Edited by indiana on Tuesday 16th of November 2010 07:32:37 PM

The key for Murray was to be seeded fourth as he'd then have had only a 50/50 chance of facing Soderling. Drawing Berdych would have been great, as given his current form he's the weakest of the eight.

Kind of wish Murray had been drawn in Nadal's group. It's pretty even, given that indoor hard is Nadal's worst surface and Murray has a good record against Fed in a best-of-three, but Murray and Fed have been in the same group for the last three years now, so it would have made a nice change.

As a sidenote if you are friends with him on facebook, you might have seen our forum administrator has had a pretty good experience today. Or should I say yesterday.