London, November 23, 2009

The wait is over! Rafa Nadal will make his ATP Barclays ATP World Tour Finals debut this afternoon in the second match -scheduled to start not before 2:15pm (local time)- at the O2 Arena in London against Sweden’s Robin Soderling.

Rafa heads into this match with a 3-1 lifetime edge over Soderling. On the 2009 term, they have split two meetings. The world No.2 opened their account with a comprehensive 6-1, 6-0 victory over Soderling at the Rome Masters R16. Soderling levelled the score when he beat Rafa 6-2, 6-7(2), 6-4, 7-6(2) in the French Open R16.

“If I play my best tennis, and he plays like he did (in Paris), it’s going to be almost impossible [to beat him]”, Rafa said about Soderling

“He is playing in a surface that fits his game well, and I think that would make it much harder for me than it was at Roland Garros,” he continued. “There is never an easy opponent at the Masters Cup, I mean, they are the top 8 players in the world and this year particularly, they’re all specialists in this kind of surface.”

ROGER AND RAFA TRAIN TOGETHER: Rafa Nadal and Roger Federer got together this weekend for a hit at the O2 Arena, where only a few media representatives were allowed to watch. During the hour-long training session they practiced their serves, volleys and even played a set, which Roger won 6-3.

ORDER OF PLAY – MONDAY, 23 NOVEMBER, 2009

CENTRE COURT – start 12:30 pm

[2] B Bryan (USA) / M Bryan (USA) vs [7] M Mirnyi (BLR) / A Ram (ISR)

Not Before 2:15 pm

[2] R Nadal (ESP) vs [8] R Soderling (SWE)  

At 7:00 pm[4] L Dlouhy (CZE) / L Paes (IND) vs L Kubot (POL) / O Marach (AUT)

Not Before 8:45 pm[3]

N Djokovic vs [6] N Davydenko (RUS)  

Vamos Rafa!