BARCLAY'S

Next week's ATP World Tour finals at London's O2 Centre will be the biggest indoor tennis event ever staged.

World number one 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 Wednesday'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.

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.

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 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.

With Federer joined by Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray, Juan Martin del Potro, Andy Roddick, 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 $1.63 million, more than the 850,000 pounds ($1.43 million) Federer took from winning Wimbledon this year.

REUTERS