Roger Federer

LONDON: Next week’s ATP World Tour finals at London’s O2 Centre will be the biggest indoor tennis event ever staged, organisers said this morning. World No 1 Roger Federer heads the cast of the top eight singles players and eight doubles pairs who have qualified for the lucrative year-ending tournament that begins a five-year stay on the banks of the River Thames in Greenwich.

On the eve of today’s draw which will be performed inside a pod of the London Eye — the largest Ferris wheel in Europe — more than 250,000 seats had been sold for the round-robin tournament which begins on Sunday.

“There is a huge appetite in London for this tournament and it hopefully will put to bed the idea that tennis in this country is a two-week interest around Wimbledon,” tournament director Chris Kermode said this morning.

“We’re up to 255,000 seats sold which already makes this the biggest indoor tennis event ever. It’s phenomenal how much interest there has been in it.”

Kermode, who is promising plenty of razzamatazz next week, said London hoped to set new standards for both players and fans alike. While Wimbledon is well-known for its gentile Englishness, next week’s events is aimed at a younger generation with rock music and lights adding to the entertainment.

A practice court has been constructed in the foyer of the venue so that the public, even those just visiting the cinema or restaurants, will have a chance to see top players in action.

“When I’ve been to indoor tournaments before the atmosphere has been quite cold and you only experience the tennis in the arena so we have built a practice court in what is called the entertainment district of the O2 where the restaurants are so people will be able to see the players there.”

After the traffic problems in Shanghai, London’s organisers have also come up with a novel way to get the players from their central London hotel out to the venue — they will go by boat.

“We chose the hotel purely for its river access because the traffic in London is so unpredictable,” Kermode said. “In Shanghai it was a long journey from the hotel to the site which was not popular with the players.

“We have two 62-seater boats, they are smoother than a car and they will have the players door to door in 30 minutes. It’s a really nice way for the players to see London.

“Some of the players are wondering what it’s going to be like and they might opt to take the car once but I’m sure they’ll soon realise that the boat is the best way to go.”

With Federer joined by Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray, Juan Martin del Potro, Nikolay Davydenko and Fernando Verdasco the quality of the tennis on offer is matched by the prize money at stake.

Should a player win all his round-robin matches on the way to the title he would pocket US$1.63 million (RM5.48m), more than the US$1.43 million Federer took from winning Wimbledon this year.

Meanwhile, Andy Roddick withdrew from this tournament because of a left knee injury and was replaced by Robin Soderling.