Federer had booked his spot as early as Tuesday when his second win of the week, over Alexander Zverev, ensured he would make it through to the semi-finals.

The Swiss made it three from three in the group stages last night too, beating Marin Cilic in three sets to ensure a No 1 seed and a clash with the runner-up from Group Pete Sampras.

Goffin faced off with Dominic Thiem in a Friday afternoon match that was a de facto quarter-final, with the Belgian winning comfortably 6-4, 6-1 to set up a second clash with Federer in a month.

He will be hoping that this encounter lasts rather longer than the previous one - at the Swiss Indoors, Federer triumphed in just an hour.

The two men will be on court in the afternoon session as ATP World Tour Finals organisers try to fill out the ticket allocation by putting Federer in the earlier slot.

A doubles match will precede the singles semi-final which could make the start time slightly unpredictable.

However, Federer and Goffin will not start before 2pm and the majority of doubles matches have not run long this week, meaning a timely start is expected.

The evening session will follow the same format, starting at 6pm before Grigor Dimitrov and Jack Sock face off in the second semi-final not before 8pm.