{"id":1113,"date":"2014-11-25T10:15:12","date_gmt":"2014-11-25T10:15:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mariabueno.org\/indextemp.php\/?p=1113"},"modified":"2014-11-29T10:15:42","modified_gmt":"2014-11-29T10:15:42","slug":"atp-davis-cup-finals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.mariabueno.org\/indextemp.php\/atp-davis-cup-finals\/","title":{"rendered":"ATP and Davis Cup Finals"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Maria<\/a>

Maria Bueno outside London’s O2 Arena<\/p><\/div>\n

mariabueno.org has taken a while to catch up with Maria\u2019s thoughts on the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals at London\u2019s O2 Arena and the Davis Cup Final a week or so back\u2026 here she is:<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a strange tournament, the ATP Finals, with the early round group matches very one-sided and two very dramatic semi-finals and then no final at all!\u201d she recalls.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the top eight players in the world we were expecting much closer contests but it is clear that there is a big difference now between [Novak] Djokovic and Roger [Federer], and, of course, Rafa [Nadal], who wasn’t there, and the rest of the pack.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was billed as the coming of the new generation of top players but they didn\u2019t do too well in that environment.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlaying a round robin format is very different from the usual knock-out tournament and the fact your are always in with a chance to recover, doesn\u2019t always make for great tennis.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf the also-rans, only Kei Nishikori and Stan Wawrinka made any sort of real impact in the semis but were, in the end, also simply out-classed by Djokovic and Federer respectively.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey both took sets but couldn\u2019t sustain their performances.<\/p>\n