Daniel Nestor

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Daniel Nestor bigraphy, stories - Tennis player

Daniel Nestor : biography

September 4, 1972 –

Daniel Mark Nestor, CM (Serbian: Данијел Нестор, Danijel Nestor, born 4 September 1972 in Belgrade, SFR Yugoslavia) is a Serbian-born Canadian professional tennis player from Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

In his career thus far he has won 80 men’s doubles titles, including a Gold medal at the 2000 Summer Olympics, the ATP World Tour Finals 4 times, and 8 Grand Slam men’s doubles titles. In addition, Nestor won the 2007 Australian Open mixed doubles title with Elena Likhovtseva. Nestor also won the 2011 Australian Open mixed doubles title with Katarina Srebotnik and the 2013 Wimbledon mixed doubles title with Kristina Mladenovic. His 80 doubles titles make him the third most decorated champion among active doubles players, and fourth all time. He and the Bryan Brothers are the only players in tennis history to have won all four Grand Slams, all of the Masters Series events, the Year End Championships and Olympic gold medal in doubles at least once. He was named ATP Doubles Team of the Year in 2002 and 2004 (with Mark Knowles) and 2008 (with Nenad Zimonjić). 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.

Tennis career

Nestor won three Grand Slam doubles titles together with longtime partner Mark Knowles of the Bahamas. The tandem won the 2002 Australian Open, the 2004 US Open and the 2007 French Open. He and Knowles also reached the final of the 1995 Australian Open, the 1998 French Open and US Open, the 2002 French Open and Wimbledon and the 2003 Australian Open. Nestor won three Grand Slam titles with Nenad Zimonjić (2008 Wimbledon, 2009 Wimbledon and 2010 French Open) and two with Max Mirnyi (2011 French Open and 2012 French Open). He also reached two more finals with Zimonjić, the 2008 French Open and 2010 Australian Open.

In mixed doubles, he reached his first final at the 2003 US Open with Lina Krasnoroutskaya. He made it to the 2006 Australian Open and 2006 French Open finals, as well as winning the mixed doubles event at the 2007 Australian Open with partner Elena Likhovtseva. He won his second mixed doubles title at the 2011 Australian Open with Katarina Srebotnik. Nestor also won the 2013 Wimbledon mixed doubles title with Kristina Mladenovic (they also reached the 2013 French Open mixed doubles final together).

At the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia, Nestor and partner Sébastien Lareau won a gold medal, the first and only medal so far in tennis for Canada.

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. He was part of the squad who made history for Canada in 2013 as they were the first Canadian team in the Open Era to reach the World Group semifinals.

Nestor won his first doubles title in Bogotá, Colombia with Mark 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 Knowles after the 2007 US Open (won a total of 40 titles together), 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 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 to take their first Tennis Masters Cup title. Nestor chose to partner with Zimonjić because he felt as though the game had transformed into a more power and physical version of doubles. It was reported in the New York Times that "on the tour, it’s known that they (Nestor and Zimonjić) joined up, after years in the top 5 with other partners, specifically to usurp the Bryans."