Nestor reveals secret to his success
Mental condiditoning helped Canadian find success in doubles play
Daniel Nestor is not going to go down easy — and we’re not talking about his fiery tennis career or his retirement.
We’re talking about his celebrity roast.
On Aug. 5, Roy Thomson Hall sets the scene for the Game. Set. Match. Daniel Nestor
fundraising gala event, hosted by comedian Shaun Majumder and sportscaster Caroline Cameron.
The night starts with a starstudded roast, served up by fellow tennis greats, and closes with Nestor’s induction into the Canadian Tennis Hall of Fame.
Nestor’s been studying the form — watching YouTube videos of basketball great Shaquille O’Neal and pop star Justin Bieber get roasted — and figures he’ll get the mic back at the end. Expect him to fire some hot volleys of his own.
“I don’t know what the other guys will come up with — I’m actually interested to see what they say,” Nestor says. “And I have quite a bit prepared for them. I’m hoping they at least come up with something good, because otherwise I’m going to feel kind of bad.”
As an opponent, Nestor’s not one to be underestimated. After a career spanning almost three decades, the doubles legend has battled for more than 1,000 wins, earned an incredible 91 titles — including 12 Grand Slams — and took the throne as world No. 1 in doubles 10 times.
The CBC has called him the Wayne Gretzky of tennis. Fans call him one of the most un- derrated Canadian athletes of all time. ‘Play as long as you can’ When he retires, Nestor will have an Olympic gold medal, an appointment to the Order of Canada, a star on Canada’s Walk of Fame, and a tennis centre in Halifax named after him. The decision to bow out wasn’t an easy one for the champion — but recently, he’s felt his dominance on the court start to slip.
“It’s a lot easier (to retire) when your level’s not good enough anymore,” Nestor says. “Day in, day out — I’ve noticed different things that I’m not doing the same. There was a time where I felt like I was the best player on the court a lot of the time … but that’s definitely changed.”
“It’s something I’ve gotten used to and accepted.”
It was important for Nestor not to leave the game he loves too early. He’s seen the phenomenon among his predecessors and he’s witnessed the regret, as old pros show up again a few years later. “When I was younger and guys were retiring, I felt like they were retiring early,” Nestor says. “I didn’t know why they were retiring at all.
As for any wisdom he’d pass down to aspiring champions in the sport, Nestor says, for him, the game-changer was all in his mind — mental conditioning and psychological fitness. He got into sports psychology in the late 1990s, while he was still playing singles, and his winning streak started taking off.
“My best years were even my mid-30s and late 30s, in doubles,” he says. “And I think that’s because I just kept becoming mentally tougher and tougher.”
Nestor wonders if the young generation of players spend too much time on physicality and athleticism — learning and training to fight a physical match, instead of a mental one.
“That’s what makes consistency and that’s what makes champions — the ones who are able to maintain that calm and keep their level. And I wasn’t always like that, it’s something I had to work at.” Last matches Getting better with age — in 2014, The Globe and Mail called him “a bottle of burgundy on the hardcourt” — but now approaching retirement once he turns 46, Nestor says there are some silver linings. No more travelling, no more saying goodbye to his children as he leaves for another tournament. A future is opening up: “hitting with kids, with adults, exhibitions, appearances.” And he’s made a commitment to play through the U.S. Open and the Davis Cup in September — a meaningful match because it’s in his hometown, Toronto, where he just returned last year after residing for a time in the Bahamas. And after that? “There will be a lot of taking the kids to school, going to the gym, staying in shape, and trying to figure out what 2019’s going to bring,” he says.
“Tennis is my life, and it has been my whole life … I don’t know in what capacity it will be, but it will definitely be tennis.”