BlackRock Masters Tennis Starts- Pete Sampras Favourite To Win

After a great run by Andy Murray last month had whole of UK hooked on to the 2008 Tennis Masters Cup, it is now the time for the legends to play their year end masters. Get set for some exciting vintage tennis in London starting today as eight of the former tennis greats take one each other in The BlackRock Masters Tennis.

The eight tennis masters in the singles event would be Pete Sampras, John McEnroe, Stefen Edberg, Pat Cash, Greg Rusedski, Jeremy Bates, Cedric Pioline and Guy Forget.

The tournament is the year end championship of the ATP's senior tour and would be played from Dec 2 to Dec 7 at The Royal Albert Hall in London and would be telecast on ITV in Britain.

The players have been divided in two groups of four each. After round robin play which will have all the players in a group facing each other once, the group winners will advance to the finals.

The two groups are as follows:

Group A - Pete Sampras, John McEnroe, Jeremy Bates and Cedric Pioline

Group B - Stefan Edberg, Pat Cash, Greg Rusedski and Guy Forget

The most awaited round robin match is between Sampras and John McEnroe.

It will be Sampras's first visit to London after 6 years since he lost in the 2nd round of Wimbledon in 2002.

Betting Choice provides the Schedule of all the matches date wise:

Tuesday 2nd December 2008

Forget v Rusedski

Cash v Edberg

Wednesday 3rd December 2008

Bates v Pioline

Edberg v Rusedski

McEnroe v Sampras

Thursday 4th December 2008

Cash v Forget

McEnroe v Pioline

Friday 5th December 2008

Edberg v Forget

Cash v Rusedski

Saturday 6th December 2008

Pioline v Sampras

Bates v McEnroe

Sunday 7th December 2008

FINALS

Various British bookmakers have come out with odds on the Winner as well as on each match.

Betting Choice lists the best odds for each of the players and the bookmaker offering the odds:

Peter Sampras 8/11 at SkyBet

Greg Rusedski 6/1 at Paddy Power and Stan James

Stefan Edberg 7/1 at Ladbrokes, Skybet and Stan James

Cedric Pioline 14/1 at Stan James

Guy Forget 14/1 at Stan James

John McEnroe 28/1 at Stan James

Pat Cash 33/1 at Stan James

Jeremy Bates 40/1 at bet365 and Paddy Power

Sampras is being touted as the outright favourite with the bookmakers as well as sports analysts. Will this turn out to be a visit to remember for Pete Sampras?

We will have to wait till 7th December for the finals , but there is a great action packed week of vintage tennis in store.