The format goes like this:

The 8 players are split up into two groups of 4. They play round-robin from Tuesday-Friday so everyone is guaranteed 3 matches. The winners of each group play each other in the final on Saturday.

Last year Federer lost to Haas in his opening match but still went on to win.

Drew wrote:

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I woule rather he would have played an ATP event other than this exhibition.....oh well he gets to rub his shoulders with the big wigs.....

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In terms of points and rankings this is actually not a bad decision, in my opinion. Quite a few people (7/10 ranked between 20 and 11) are defending big points in the first two weeks, but Andy isn't. His 18th result is now 40 so he would have to reach the semis to affect his ranking and this way he is certain to play at least 3 matches against top quality opposition, great preparation for the Aussie Open, where hopefully he can greatly improve on his 5 points from last year. Basically, from my point of view he has little to lose from doing this.

Drew wrote:

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imoen wrote:

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Drew wrote:

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I woule rather he would have played an ATP event other than this exhibition.....oh well he gets to rub his shoulders with the big wigs.....

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In terms of points and rankings this is actually not a bad decision, in my opinion. Quite a few people (7/10 ranked between 20 and 11) are defending big points in the first two weeks, but Andy isn't. His 18th result is now 40 so he would have to reach the semis to affect his ranking and this way he is certain to play at least 3 matches against top quality opposition, great preparation for the Aussie Open, where hopefully he can greatly improve on his 5 points from last year. Basically, from my point of view he has little to lose from doing this.

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thats me told

think i will go and lie down in a dark room !

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well if you will disagree with me you have to expect to be put right

I do take your point though and if Andy does really well in this tournament I will be torn between happiness that he's doing well and annoyance that he won't get any points for it.

which one is the official website:

http://www.aamiclassic.com.au/Home

i was trying to check if the draw is made but not till tuesday. since the tournament is based on rankings, murray is going to be 6/7th seed(without looking at the list!). Also, do the players take this tournament seriously? Plus if Andy drawn with FedXpress, will he take the match seriously?

Andy plays Ljobo again.....

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/tennis/6244513.stm

Does anybody thoroughly understand how this works? I believe there are two groups of four for each round robin; does that mean that Andy will only play Ljubo, Roddick and Haas (unless he wins the group of course)?

On another note, on the tournament website, have a look at the players details. The photo that is supposed to be Ljubicic doesn't look like him to me. . . if it is, it must be an old one and he has changed. What do you think?

Looked at he photo...its Ljubo...with a cap...im sure !

Excerpts from the PC this morning in Kooyong...

QUESTION:  Andy Murray, can you tell us what heart you took

                    from your performance last week and how it set you up

                    for the Open, please?

               ANDY MURRAY:  Yes, it was obviously a good tournament,

                    I played well, last year I did pretty badly, so it was

                    good to be in my first final and I had a really

                    competitive match with Ivan in the final, and I hope to

                    have my revenge on Wednesday, so it will be good.

QUESTION:  Where do you think you're placed in terms of your

                    preparations for this Australian summer?

               ANDY MURRAY:  Where do I think I'm placed?

               QUESTION:  How you're travelling?

               ANDY MURRAY:  How I'm travelling?  I feel okay.  I think

                    I played well last week.  This is the first time I'm

                    going to play here.  I think it's part of the

                    preparation.  As you can see by the quality of the

                    field this year, I got told that 10 of the last 12

                    winners of the Australian Open have all played here.

                    So it can't get any better than that.  So I feel like

                    I've prepared pretty well.

QUESTION:  Andy Murray, what has Brad Gilbert done for your

                    game in what he's trying to achieve?

               ANDY MURRAY:  Yes, he's been great.  He's definitely one of

                    the most experienced coaches in the world, he's worked

                    with two great players in Andre and Andy.  He was a

                    very good player himself, and definitely helped me a

                    lot, you know, in knowing how to match my strengths up

                    against my opponents' weaknesses.  By the way my

                    ranking has been going, you can see that he's been

                    good, and I'm definitely not tired of him yet.  And

                    it's been a really good kind of six or seven months,

                    I hope it will continue.

               QUESTION:  Andy, he talks a lot and you don't say much.

               ANDY MURRAY:  Yes.

               QUESTION:  How does that work?

               ANDY MURRAY:  It's a good combination.  I listen to him most

                    of the time; some of the time I switch off.  It's quite

                    difficult.  But yes, it's good.  I'd rather have

                    someone talking a little bit too much, than -- he's

                    normally pretty positive, he's not being negative all

                    the time, so I guess that's a good thing.  And it's

                    not -- the talking thing hasn't really gotten to me

                    yet, so it's all going well.


QUESTION:  Andy Murray, as one of the young guns being

                    invited here, how do you rate yourself among the young

                    guys, such as (inaudible) and Tomas Berdych?  Who do

                    you think is your main challenger this year?

               ANDY MURRAY:  I don't think I could really rate who is best

                    or who has the most potential.  I think it's good for

                    tennis that a lot of guys, maybe five guys in the top

                    20 are still under 21 may be, so that's good.

                    Obviously I think Novak Djokovic, I saw him here, so

                    I'm guessing he's probably playing a match or two.  He

                    obviously won last week, you know.

                    So there's a lot of good young guys, and I think all of

                    us are all trying to become like these guys, you know,

                    they are all the experienced ones, the best players in

                    the world, and have been at the top for a long time,

                    and we're hoping to come along and try and challenge

                    them.