Pat Cash predicts thrilling tennis at O2 tournament

World number one Federer might be hot favourite to win, and add it to his Wimbledon and French Open crowns, but former Wimbledon champion Pat Cash feels it won't be a cakewalk for the Swiss maestro.

He said: "I think anyone can win the tournament and that's something we haven't said for a long time. It's about as open an event as we've had for years. Hopefully it's a sign for 2010 about how open tennis can be.

"It's been such one-way traffic. Roger really hasn't had too many people to play against so he's dominated. He's been made to look absolutely brilliant.

"He is brilliant anyway, but it's nice to see someobody who many regard as the greatest of all time actually play against someone who is great as opposed to it being a one-way street.

"It looks like it's going to shape up to be a couple of great years and hopefully this tournament will finish off this year that way."

Federer has only really had Rafael Nadal pushing him as the world's best in recent years and the Spaniard will be at The O2, although Cash doesn't rate his chances after an injury-hit year.

He said: "He started off the year incredibly well winning in Australia. That was a superhuman perfomance but since then things have gone downhill for him.

"He needs to be very precise with his game and he's not hitting the spots. Because of the way he hits the ball, if he doesn't quite time it right then it sort of just sits there.

"But he's very tough to beat, because of the way he competes and the way he moves."

British hopes will be resting on Andy Murray, with the World number four looking to win his first title on home soil. Cash believes he can handle the expectation.

He said: "I think he's got a great chance. He's fresh. He's come back very well.

"He won a tournament recently. It was a smaller event but he still had to beat the players he had to beat, which was a good effort after being out for about a month. He'll be a threat."

The tournament will see two groups of four with players facing each other in a round robin format. The top two in each group then progress to the semi-finals.

All singles matches will be three sets with each decided with a tie-break if necessary. The winner of the tournament will scoop $770,000 and if he's undefeated all week that will increase to a cool $1.63million.

So there's plenty to play for and Cash had the following summaries of the eight players taking part:

Roger Federer (Age: 28; Switzerland; French Open and Wimbledon champion 2009)
"It's very hard to beat a guy like Federer over five sets but you can over three sets. That's where it makes it more likely to have an upset here against the world number one.

"But if I had some money I'd probably put it on him. He's so consistent over the years it's hard to write him off."

Rafael Nadal (23, Spain, Australian Open champion)
"Nadal's been a bit patchy this year. Obviously injury didn't help him. He's lost a bit of confidence, the players have worked him out a little bit and I wouldn't expect great things from him. He's incredibly competitive and a super athlete so he'll be tough to beat."

Novak Djokovic (22, Serbia, defending ATP champion)
"Djokovic is playing great tennis. He might be tired after winning in Paris last week but he'll be ramping it up by the end of the week. Once he gets on court, lining up with the players, he'll be getting pumped. The adrenalin will see him through."

Andy Murray (22, Great Britain)
"He's got a great chance. He's fresh. He's come back from injury very well. He'll be moving well, hitting the ball well and again he'll be excited, and he'll be a threat."

Robin Soderling (25, Sweden)
"He's a good player and he's had a great season, reaching the French Open final.

"It's a shame Roddick can't play because he's very popular but Soderling is a good back-up."

Juan Martin Del Potro (21, Argentina, US Open champion)
"It's been tough to keep it up for him. He had a very good US Open where everything went right for him.

"It'll be the first time people in the UK can have a good look at him and see how powerful his shots are. He's a nice player to watch."
Verdasco

Nikolay Davydenko (28, Russia)
"He's only a little guy, about five foot eight or nine, light but he hits the ball with an absolute wallop. He's super-competitive, super-fit, no real weaknesses, a little Russian guy who can run all day. I like the way he plays."

Fernando Verdasco (26, Spain)
"Verdasco has got a lot of flair. He's a brilliant player with a huge forehand. He's got all the shots as well."

There is also a doubles tournament taking place over the week, with top seeds Nestor and Zimonjic kicking things off at 12.30pm on Sunday.

Andy Murray will contest the first singles match when he faces Del Potro on Sunday afternoon, with Federer on court against Verdasco in the evening.

The Wharf will be at the tournament all week and you can follow the action on wharf.co.uk.

Cash was speaking at the launch of a Barclays Spaces For Sport initiative in south London and he hopes having the focus on tennis next week will boost the sport's popularity in Britain.

He said: "I'm a big supporter of any way we can get some rackets into kids hands and let them enjoy it. Tennis has a lot of potential in this country but hasn't really ever been accessed.

"There's a bit of a boom in Britain with tennis at the moment. They had it for a while with Tim Henman but nothing got done then, but now things are starting to get done so it's good."

Pat Cash is a Barclays ATP World Tour Finals ambassador. Tickets for the event, which starts at The O2 this Sunday, are available from barclaysatpworldtourfinals.com.