Daniel Nestor - Tennis Career

Tennis Career

He won three Grand Slam doubles titles together with longtime partner Mark Knowles of the Bahamas. The tandem won the 2002 Australian Open, the 2004 U.S. Open and the 2007 French Open. He and Knowles also reached the final of the 1995 Australian Open, the 1998 French Open and U.S. Open, the 2002 French Open and Wimbledon, the 2003 Australian Open and the 2005 Wimbledon He became the World No. 1 ranked doubles player in the world in August 2002. Nestor's career-high singles ranking is World No. 58, which he reached in August, 1999. In mixed doubles, he reached the 2003 U.S. Open final and the 2006 Australian Open final, as well as winning the mixed doubles event at the 2007 Australian Open with partner Elena Likhovtseva and the 2011 Australian Open with Katarina Srebotnik.

At the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia, Nestor and partner Sébastien Lareau won a gold medal.

He has been a member of the Canadian Davis Cup team since 1992. He first came to prominence in the public eye that year by defeating then world number one Stefan Edberg in a hard-fought singles match in Vancouver.

Nestor won his first doubles title in Bogotá, Colombia with Knowles in 1994. They defeated French Open champions Luke and Murphy Jensen in the final.

On July 5, 2006, he participated in the second-longest match in Wimbledon history, lasting 6 hours and 9 minutes.

Daniel parted ways with long-time doubles partner Mark Knowles after the 2007 U.S. Open, then started a partnership with Nenad Zimonjić. He won a doubles title with Zimonjić at the 2007 St. Petersburg Open. Nestor and Zimonjić advanced to the 2007 Paris Masters final as the second seeds, but lost, 3–6, 6–7(4) to no. 1 doubles team Bob and Mike Bryan.

Knowles partnered Nestor once again and won the 2007 Tennis Masters Cup. It was a fitting end for one of the most successful doubles teams to ever play the game. They defeated Simon Aspelin and Julian Knowle, 6–3, 6–2, to take their first Tennis Masters Cup title. Nestor chose to partner with Zimonjic because he wanted a partner with a big serve considering that shorter rallies would be better for his game as he got older. It was reported in the New York Times that "on the tour, it's known that they (Nestor and Zimonjic) joined up, after years in the top 5 with other partners, specifically to usurp the Bryans."

In 2008, Nestor and Zimonjić won the Hamburg Masters and Queen's Club Championships. They reached the final of the French Open, Indian Wells Masters, and Rome Masters. He captured the 2008 Wimbledon title for the first time, winning 7–6, 6–7, 6–3, 6–3 over Jonas Björkman and Kevin Ullyett. Thus he managed to win a career Golden Slam. In 2009, they won the Wimbledon title again and won nine titles, losing in the last tournament of the year twice, giving the Bryans the no. 1 rank. An Australian Open runner-up with Zimonjic, they jumped back up to no. 1, making up for an embarrassing past two years at the tournament.

At the 2009 US Open, Nestor was fined US$5,000 for unsportsmanlike conduct towards some fans who were rooting for his quarterfinal opponents by cheering at Nestor's team unforced errors.

In October 2010, the Nestor-Zimonjić duo announced that they would split up at the end of the 2010 season. However, they finished their partnership on a high note by winning the ATP World Tour Finals in London. Nestor paired up with Max Mirnyi in 2011.

His first tournament with Max Mirnyi in Brisbane was his 783rd career doubles victory, overtaking Todd Woodbridge's total of 782 for the all-time match wins record.

In 2011, he won four titles with Mirnyi: the French Open, Memphis, the Shanghai Masters and the Year End Championships in London. In the final of the Year End Championships, he played his 1,148th match, an all-time record.

Starting 2013, Nestor will be partnering with Mahesh Bhupathi.