Roger Federer of Switzerland dodges a tennis racket thrown by Andy Roddick of Britain after he won a point in the 2012 BNP Paribas Showdown at Madison Square Garden in New York March 5, 2012. REUTERS/Ray Stubblebine
Roger Federer of Switzerland dodges a tennis racket thrown by Andy Roddick of Britain after he won a point in the 2012 BNP Paribas Showdown at Madison Square Garden in New York March 5, 2012. REUTERS/Ray Stubblebine REUTERS

The top eight tennis in the world slug it out in the tennis season finale from Nov. 21 to 27, 2014 at the O2 Arena in London for the 2014 ATP World Tour Finals. Novak Djokovic (Switzerland), the current world number one and most likely, the year-end top player, has been drawn to a luckier side of the draw and will play Stanislas Wawrinka (Switzerland), Tomas Berdych (Czech Republic) and Marin Cilic (Croatia) in the round-robin stage. The same cannot be said for Roger Federer (Switzerland), who will battle Kei Nishikori (Japan), Andy Murray (United Kingdom) and Milos Raonic (Canada) in the group stages.

Missing in action Rafael Nadal (Spain), who withdrew due to various injuries and surgery, paving the way for Cilic to replace him in the London line-up. Here’s a comprehensive list of each contender and they have fared so far in the 2014 season (2014 record, number of titles, prize money):

Group A

Marin Cilic (54-18, 4 titles, $4,512,359)

Tomas Berdych (54-20, 2 titles, $3,219,534)

Stanislas Wawrinka (36-15, 3 titles, $4,447,116)

Novak Djokovic (57-8, 6 titles, $9,525,527)

Group B

Roger Federer (68-11, 5 titles, $6,898,988)

Kei Nishikori (52-12, 4 titles, $3,966,363)

Andy Murray (58-18, 3 titles, $3,164,822)

Milos Raonic (49-18, 1 title, $3,079,480)

The ATP World Tour Finals calls for a round-robin format among the players in each group. All matches are best-of-three tie-break sets. The players with the two best records after the group stage will advance to the next round, the final four in the crossover semifinals, where the top two meets the other two qualifiers from the other group.

“Two successive titles in London in the past two years give me reason to believe that I can do well,” Djokovic said via the tournament’s official website. Djokovic has won the last two titles in the season finale beating Rafael Nadal, 6-3, 6-4 in 2013 and Federer, 7-6 (6), 7-5 in 2012. Federer won the the previous two editions before Djokovic’s back-to-back titles in 2011 and 2010.

Djokovic is obviously the man to beat in London, with an easier draw his real test will come in the semifinals. Federer meanwhile will have to play his A-game to advance from what many pundits are saying as the “group of death” considering Nishikori, Murray and Raonic are in-form entering the finale in London.

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