The never-ending men’s tour is finally getting ready to finish.  The year-end tournament starts on Monday with the world’s eight best players competing.  To be sure, no year-end championship is as unrecognized by the public as this one.  While it is certainly a feather in one’s cap, most pros know that greatness is not measured by this title, despite its distinction as the fifth most important title of year.

This is a pity, really, because only the year-end championship has a round-robin format that allows the best players opportunities to play more than 1 other very good player.

This year, the top eight qualifiers were: Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray, Juan Martin del Potro, Andy Roddick, Nikolay Davydenko and Fernando Verdasco.  Of the eight, only Andy Roddick was unable to make it due to a knee injury sustained in Shanghai.  Roddick’s replacement is French Open finalist, Robin Soderling.

The eight players are divided into two groups of four that each play 3 times.  The 2 players with the best records (and associated tiebreaks) go to the semifinals and it becomes single elimination at that point.

Group A consists of Roger Federer, Andy Murray, Juan Martin del Potro and Fernando Verdasco.  Group B consists of Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Nikolay Davydenko, and Robin Soderling.

On the first day, Murray will play del Potro and Federer will play Verdasco.  Murray hasn’t played del Potro since Montreal where they met in the final and del Potro withered in the heat.  del Potro hasn’t played much since the US Open concluded, so it’s difficult to assess where his game is.  He chose not to play Cincinnati after he withdrew in Montreal, but came roaring back to win the US Open.

Federer has never lost to Verdasco, and so is favored to win.

On the second day, Nadal plays Soderling and Djokovic plays Davydenko.

Nadal hasn’t played Soderling since he lost to him in the French Open.  Nadal has yet to look very crisp after the US Open.  Indoors is not Nadal’s best surface.  He has lost to Davydenko and Djokovic recently.  Is Soderling playing well enough to beat Nadal?  Soderling should play better on faster surfaces, despite his win over Nadal on clay.

Djokovic and Davydenko last played in the semifinals of Shanghai where Djokovic lost in a 3rd set tiebreak.  Since then, Djokovic won in Basel and Paris.  This match could prove interesting as both have played quite well indoors.  Djokovic should be favored.

One more week of the world’s best tennis players playing one another before the men’s tour shuts down for a month and it starts all over again in January.

Oh, the name!  What used to be called “The Masters” then became “The Masters Cup” is now the “ATP World Tour Finals”.

It all starts Sunday.