Former Wimbledon champions John McEnroe, Boris Becker and Richard Krajicek have been drawn together into what Becker called a 'group of death' in the round robin stages of The Masters Tennis presented by Cunard at the Royal Albert Hall.
A murmur went around the room at the London Hilton Hotel as referee Alan Mills announced that the trio had been drawn to play each other in Group C, and Becker gave a wry smile.
"It's the Group of Death. I just hope I won't be dying this week!" said Becker.
"You have three Wimbledon champions in that group, three guys with a serve-and-volley game and on the quick, indoor Royal Albert Hall courts I think it will be a hell of a ride. I'm known to enjoy myself on the indoor courts so I'm hoping to enjoy this week."
Krajicek could barely believe his eyes.
"It is a pretty impressive group," he said.
"Everyone was saying to me how nice it will be for me to play indoors, but the advantage only comes when you play guys who prefer to play from the back of the court. When you play John McEnroe and Boris Becker suddenly the whole advantage of playing indoors on a fast court is diminished to zero. But it's going to be a lot of fun. I'm really looking forward to playing John and Boris."
Elsewhere, the draw threw up some more tantalising contests.
Jim Courier, the current No.1 player in the Stanford Financial Champions Tour Rankings, will meet Pat Cash and Henri Leconte in Group A
Meanwhile, No.2 Thomas Muster will face the big serving former Wimbledon Champion Michael Stich and Sweden's Mikael Pernfors in Group B.
In the fourth and final group, seven-time Grand Slam title winner Mats Wilander will face Guy Forget and Anders Jarryd of Sweden in Group D. Jarryd was a late replacement for Sergi Bruguera, who was forced to withdraw from the event after being struck down with Flu.
Players in each group will face each other in a round-robin format with the top two players going forward to Friday's quarterfinals.
The ever-popular season-ending event has been played in London every year since 1997, but has now been upgraded to The Masters of the Delta Tour of Champions with ten of the players having qualified by their performances at all tournaments on the Road to London.
It will feature a larger field than ever before (12 players instead of 8), an extra day of action and a $100,000 winner-take-all prize.
As well as the competitive action at the Royal Albert Hall, a world-class field of players, including Ilie Nastase, John Lloyd and Mansour Bahrami, will feature in doubles entertainment.
The opening evening session of the event on the 30th November will see Tim Henman take on US Open semifinalist Joachim Johansson to aid the charity Kids at Heart.
Tickets for The Masters Tennis presented by Cunard can be booked from the box office by telephone: +44 (0)20 7589 8212, or online at www.themasterstennis.com. Prices start at $25.00 (or $7.50 for restricted view seating). The best seats are going quickly and hospitality sales are at unprecedented levels.
