Nestor hopes to bounce back in his final year
Canadian tennis player Daniel Nestor learned a lesson before his first appearance at the Canadian Open that served him well throughout his legendary career.
Just 16 at the time and ranked 923rd in singles, he was given a wild-card berth in the 1989 tournament at Montreal. Nestor made the mistake of looking past his first-round opponent to who was waiting in the second round — a potential matchup against former world No. 1 John McEnroe.
“I was so caught up in that and worried about that I ended up not even focusing really on my first-round opponent. He was obviously much better than I was anyway and he beat me pretty handily,” Nestor said with a laugh.
It would only be a few years after Nestor turned pro that opponents would be checking for his name in the draw.
Nestor played singles in the early going before turning his full attention to doubles. He excelled, winning Olympic gold in 2000, all four Grand Slams and virtually every significant tournament on the ATP Tour.
Now 45, he 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.
For a player who spent most of his career with steady partners like Mark Knowles, Nenad Zimonjic and Max Mirnyi, the regular lineup changes have been challenging.
“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.”