Nestor hopes to bounce back for final year

Canadian tennis player Daniel Nestor, now 45, struggled last year while playing with a variety of partners and was shut out of the winner’s circle for the first time in 24 seasons. Nestor declared last summer that the 2018 campaign would be his last as a touring pro.

He plans to call it quits after the Rogers Cup in Toronto or the U.S. Open in New York. “That’s still the plan,” Nestor said from Doha in a recent interview. “It would have to take some remarkable results to make me change my mind.”

The decision was made after Nestor made several uncharacteristic early exits in 2017. He started the year ranked 15th and tumbled to No. 56.

“Up until last year I felt like I could still win big tournaments,” said Nestor, who’s third on the Open era list with 91 men’s doubles titles. “I think that’s changed a little bit. Last year was a pretty eye-opening season for me.”

Nestor will team up with Austria’s Philipp Oswald at this week’s Qatar Open. They’ll open the season Tuesday against the second-seeded duo of Austria’s Oliver Marach and Mate Pavic of Croatia. After that, Nestor will team with American Donald Young the following week before playing with Jonathan Erlich of Israel at the Australian Open.

“It’s not easy but I don’t really have a choice now,” Nestor said. “As you drop in the rankings and get older, you become less appealing to some of the top doubles players. I’ve gotten used to that.”