Roger Federer

The 22-year-old continued: "It's not just against him, against Roger or Rafa (Nadal) or Novak (Djokovic), all of them can go on streaks where they play great.

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"Obviously, I look forward to playing Roger," Murray said. "I've played Juan a few times on the tour recently and also had a close match recently with Verdasco indoors in Valencia."

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"In my group, Federer is the best in the world, Del Potro has just won the US Open and Verdasco has just had the best season of his life," said Murray.

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"All of the guys are tough otherwise they wouldn't be here and at his best there is no one tougher than Roger," said Murray yesterday after being present at the draw made in one of the London Eye's windswept pods.

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Ivanisevic said: "If you want to go for a safe bet at the O2, then look no further than Roger Federer.

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"I was down a set, and only the second set was I able to sort of get the ball into play, find my range, find my rhythm," Federer said.

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"I don't think he has much to prove," Federer said. "Now he has to reach very high, which is not an easy thing to do because it's quite open at the top in a way, so everybody beats everybody."

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"The longer the match went, the more my belief was going up and his was going down," said Federer. But Murray, an avid reader of match statistics, be they his own or an opponent's, will have noted the 29 unforced errors and the wayward Federer forehand, once his great strength and now sometimes his achilles heel. Murray had predicted that Federer would have to play well to beat Verdasco - "he is very, very dangerous,"

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"Obviously I expect a difficult match. It's always fun playing your fellow rivals. I think Andy has been one of the guys I played the most," Federer said.

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"I just felt that sort of at the beginning of the second set, I was starting to return better. The whole first set I was struggling to really put normal returns into play," Federer said.

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