The draw for the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals will be held in London on Tuesday and Roger Federer expects 'nicely-balanced groups'.
Finals draw takes place on Tuesday
The draw for the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals will be held in London on Tuesday.
The eight-man field will discover their group opponents for the season-ending tournament when the names come out of the hat at 1230 GMT.
As top seed, Wimbledon champion Novak Djokovic knows he will be placed in Group A, with second seed Rafael Nadal in Group B.
Andy Murray is seeded third which means he will avoid fourth seed Roger Federer in the group stages this year. The pair have met in the groups in each of the past two seasons at the O2 Arena with Federer winning both times.
David Ferrer and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga are seeded fifth and sixth so will be drawn into opposite groups. That is also the case with Tomas Berdych and Mardy Fish.
The players will compete on a round-robin basis with the top two in each group progressing to the semi-finals.
With both Djokovic (shoulder) and Fish (hamstring) struggling with injuries in Paris last week, first alternate Janko Tipsarevic will be on his toes. Nicolas Almagro is the second alternate.
Defending champion Federer comes into the tournament as the form player following back-to-back titles in Basel and Paris.
Balance
He expects Tuesday's draw to produce some "nicely balanced" groups.
The Swiss said: "I think (with) these groups we're going to see have potential for everybody to win the tournament.
"It's not like in maybe other years where there was one or two such clear favourites, and after that it would have been a huge surprise.
"I think this year it's much more even, and that makes then the groups nicely balanced, so I'm looking forward to that."
Speaking after beating Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the Paris Masters final on Sunday, he added: "I have had some really tough losses this year, but I kept believing that still the year wasn't over. I can still finish this year on a high.
"I still have a massive highlight coming up in a week's time."
The ATP World Tour Finals get under way on Sunday.
