May 20th, 2009 by Peter Bevan

World number one Rafael Nadal was the first player to book his place at the end of season Barclays ATP World Tour Finals, being held at the London O2 Arena and making it the biggest indoor tennis event in the world ever.

Rafael Nadal has qualified for the showpiece event, previously called the Tennis Masters Cup, for the past four years. However, Rafael Nadal has had to withdraw twice with injury, including last year with a knee injury, where the event was held in Shanghai and Novak Djokovic became the eventual winner.

Despite being world number one, Rafael Nadal has never won this end of season tournament. In 2006 and 2007, Rafael Nadal was not able beat Roger Federer in the semi-finals.

At the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals, only the top eight singles players and doubles teams will play against each other in a round-robin structured tournament.

The eight players are divided into two groups of four, where each player will play against the other three players in their group. Then the two players from each group with the best match statistics make it to the semi-finals before the winners fight it out in the grand final.

The Barclays ATP World Tour Finals champion will win $5million (£3.2m) and 1,500 ATP world ranking points.

The Barclays ATP World Tour Finals are taking place at the London O2 Arena every year until 2012. This year, the tournament starts from November 22-29 and organisers said 150,000 out of 250,000 tickets have already been sold. 65,000 tickets have been released for general sale since May 19.

Tickets for the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals are available to compare at tixdaq.com

Beforehand, players must win as many ATP world ranking points as possible to in order to qualify in the top eight for the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals. Points are gained by playing in the upcoming tournaments, such as the Wimbledon Championships which takes place from June 22.

Wimbledon tickets are also available to compare at tixdaq.com