Nestor, Daniel

Daniel Nestorovich was born in Belgrade in 1972, becoming the second son in the family (his brother Alex is four years older ^[1] ). His parents, mechanical engineer Ray and teacher Anna, moved with their children to Canada in June 1976, settling in Toronto . Daniel grew up a shy, withdrawn boy who loved sports and TV shows; he overcame this shyness later, when he became close friends with other tennis players on a professional tour, although he still did not like to share his personal life with someone else ^[2] .

In July 2005, Daniel married a Toronto resident Natasha Gavrilovich ^[3] . Two daughters were born in this marriage: Tiana in December 2008 and Bianca in March 2013 ^[4] . Nestor, who lived with his family in the Bahamas for some time, returned to Toronto in 2017 ^[5] . Daniel, whose tennis career initially required significant sacrifices from the family, later he himself helped his parents and older brother, who, with his financial support, graduated from the law department of the University of Santa Clara in California, becoming a lawyer in San Francisco ^[1] .

Since 2003, a regularly held charity tennis tournament with the participation of celebrities Daniel Nestor Celebrity Charity Event, the proceeds of which are sent to the General Hospital of North York and the Canada Tennis Association Go for Gold fund (by 2011 the amount of the transferred amounts exceeded 700 thousand dollars) ^[6] . Part of the public activities of Nestor are also master classes that he gives in tennis clubs in peripheral settlements ^[7] . In 2018, he became the honorary director of the Calgary tournament, part of the ATP Challenger professional tour ^[8] .

Career start

The first racket of Daniel (worth two dollars ^[9] ), his father bought him at seven years old. A boy who loved to play football and basketball fell in love with the new game, practicing for hours alone in the Elkhorn public school in North York ^[2] . During these years, he tried to imitate another left-handed tennis player - Jimmy Connors ^[9] . At age 11, Daniel became the finalist of the Canadian National Championship for boys under 12 years old in singles and the doubles champion. At the age of 15, Pierre Lamarche, coach of the national youth team of Canada, began to work with him, subsequently noting that his new student showed extraordinary talent from the first lesson. At age 17, Nestor declined an invitation to join Nick Bolletieri 's prestigious tennis academy in the United States, preferring to continue classes with Lamarche ^[9] .

In 1989, the youth team of Canada led by Lamarsh (in addition to Nestor, it was played by Greg Rousseski , another Toronto resident Robert Yanechek and the Montreal Sebastien Laro and Sebastien Leblanc) sensationally won the Sunshine Cup - the youth (under 18 years old) world team championship, also known as the youth Davis Cup ^{[10] [11]} . In the decisive match, the Canadians, seeded by eighths, outplayed the favorites - the Swedish national team, who had already played their fifth final in ten years ^[12] . In the same year, Nestor spent his first match in a professional tournament in Chikutimi ( Quebec ) ^[13] and made his debut in the Canadian Open , receiving a wild card , but losing in the first round ^[14] . By the beginning of next year, a Canadian who flew to Melbourne to participate in the youth tournament of the Australian Open had enough rating points to participate in the qualification for the adult championship. In the first round of qualification, Nestor led 6: 1, 5: 2, but lost due to the unusual heat. After that, he injured his leg at the warm-up before the youth tournament match and returned to Canada on crutches ^[15] .

In 1992, together with Laro Nestor, he won his first ATP Challenger tournament in Recife (Brazil) ^{[16] [17]} , and in Nagoya (Japan) and Brunei reached the final of tournaments of the same level in singles ^[18] . From the same year, Daniel began playing for the Canadian national team in the Davis Cup , and in his debut match for the national team he managed to beat Stefan Edberg , at the time of the game the former first racket of the world - the Canadian himself at that time was in the 238th line ^[19] . The Swede won two of the first three sets, including one with a score of 6: 1, but then his young opponent managed to turn the tide of the game and win. Two days later, Nestor's coach Pierre Lamarsh, who was then captain of the Canadian national team, with a score of 2: 2 in the match, put his 19-year-old student with bloody corn on his foot and an injection of pain medication for a decisive game against Magnus Gustafsson . The fight, as on the first day, was delayed until the fifth set, the injection was over, and the Canadian, who had severe pain in his leg, lost the last set 6: 4 ^[9] .

The year 1993 was marked for the young Canadian by participating in the longest tie-break in the history of the US Open , which he lost to Goran Ivanishevich 20:18 ^{[1] [20]} . In early 1994, paired with Laro, he reached the quarter finals of the Australian Open ^[15] . In September of the same year, Nestor won the first ATP tournament together with Mark Knowles ( Bahamas ) in Bogota ( Colombia ), defeating the winners of the French Open, Luke and Murphy Jensen in the final ^[21] . Partnership with Knowles was an accident - Daniel signed up for the tournament with his father, and the tennis player found out about this only on the eve of the competition. However, this event marked the beginning of a long-term successful cooperation, in which Nestor and Knowles won 40 doubles together ^[2] .

1995—2000

In 1995, Nestor won his first single-player Challenger in Aptos (USA) ^[17] and reached the second round in three Grand Slam tournaments . In pairs, he achieved much more impressive successes: with Knowles (only four months after the start of cooperation ^[2] ) he reached his first grand slam tournament final in the Australian Open, then to the semi-finals at the Wimbledon tournament and to the quarter-finals in the US Open . They also became finalists of the Cincinnati ATP category tournament, won three lower-ranking tournaments together and secured their participation in the ATP World Championship . There, however, they lost all three games in the group stage ^[22] .

In 1996, Nestor and Knowles won four ATP tournaments, including two of the highest category, and one more time went to the finals; in addition to this, the Canadian reached the finals of another tournament with Anders Yarrid . As a result, Nestor entered the top ten tennis players in doubles, and in tandem with Knowles for the second year in a row he took part in the APR world championship, although, having failed to leave the group again. In singles, he managed to defeat two players from the top ten over the season - Thomas Muster and Andre Agassi - and come close to the border of the first hundred singles ATP rating ^[23] . Nestor took part in the Atlanta Olympics both in singles, where he dropped out of the fight in the first round, and paired with the former first racket of the world by Grant Connell ^[24] . The Canadian duet was seeded under the second number, but already in the second round lost to Neil Broad and Tim Henman , who eventually won silver medals ^[25] .

In early 1997, Nestor and Knowles met each other on the court in a single Davis Cup match between their teams; the victory remained with the Canadian, who provided his team with access to the next round ^[26] . During the season, Nestor reached the first semi-finals of the ATP main round tournament of his career in singles ( in Newport ) ^[27] and added Thomas Enquist to the list of defeated players from the top ten, but he did not enter the top hundred. In pairs, he and Knowles won only two tournaments this year, but both won the highest ATP category ( in Indian Wells and Rome ). Together with two more finals and a quarterfinal of the Australian Open, this was enough to get into the APR World Cup for the third time in a row, where, however, not a single match was won ^[28] .

In 1998, Nestor again won two tournaments (one with Knowles, and the second with Laro), but played six more times in the final. At the same time, with Knowles, they visited the finals of the French Open, the US Open (where they failed to realize two matchballs ^[29] ) and the APR World Cup. In two cases out of three, the best couple in the world blocked their path to the title - Paul Harhuis and Jakko Elting from the Netherlands ^[30] . The next season was the most successful in Nestor's solo career: he reached the third round in Australia and the fourth at Wimbledon, by mid-August, rising to 58th place in the rating ^[9] . In pairs, the Canadian won two tournaments, both with Laro, with whom they were preparing for the upcoming Olympics ^[31] , and reached the semi-finals at Wimbledon with Knowles, but for the fifth time in a row they could not get into the number of participants in the APR world championship ^[32] .

Due to osteoarthritis of the acromioclavicular joint of the left shoulder, Nestor had to undergo surgery in January 2000 ^[2] , after which he missed the first four months of the 2000 tennis season ^[27] . The operation also resulted in changes in the speed with which the Canadian could serve the ball, which reduced his ability to successfully play in singles ^[9] . However, returning to court in May, he and Laro reached the quarter finals in the French Open, Wimbledon and the US Open and won the Masters series tournament in Toronto ^[11] . Nestor and Laro became the first Canadian couple since the start of the Open Era in tennis to win this tournament ^[33] . After that, at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, they won gold medals, defeating the Australian favorites Todd Woodbridge - Mark Woodford in the final of the tournament favorites with a score of 5: 7, 6: 3, 6: 4, 7: 6 (2) ^[34] . The ending of the season Nestor spent with other partners, winning two more tournaments ^[35] .

2001-2007

Nestor began the year 2001 with a victory in Doha , where Knowles was his partner, but spent the middle of the season with the Australian Sandon Stoll , and the ending with the representative of Yugoslavia, Nenad Zimonich . With Stall, the Canadian reached the finals four times; they twice lost in the finals of the highest category ATP tournaments - in the Italian and German Open Championships - and won two tournaments of a lower rank. In addition, with Stoll, the Canadian became the Australian Open quarterfinal. With Zimonich Nestor won one tournament and once again reached the finals and ended the season in the top ten ^[36] .

By the end of 2002, both Nestor and Knowles practically stopped singing, focusing on the doubles ^[9] , although Nestor still went on the court alone in the national team (having won five sets in the next year as part of the Davis Cup match the former first racket of the world Marcelo Rios ^[37] ). The result of the reunion with Knowles on the court made itself felt immediately: already in January they won Nestor's first Grand Slam tournament, the Australian Open (he was only the second Canadian in history to win the Grand Slam ^[34] ). The season developed further successfully for them: in the first half of the year they won three more tournaments, including the Masters tournament in Miami , where the then first world couple Donald Johnson - Jared Palmer won the final. Four more times the Canadian-Bahamian duet during this time played in the finals, including the French Open and Wimbledon. For the second half of the year, they reached the finals five more times, having won two titles, and after winning the tournament in Indianapolis in mid-August, Nestor for the first time in his career climbed the highest step in the ATP rating ^[38] . Together with Knowles, according to the results of the season, they were recognized as the best pair of the year ATP ^[39] .

In 2003, Nestor and Knowles reached the finals of the Australian Open and the semifinals of the US Open and the Masters Cup (as the final tournament of the season was now called). They also again won six tournaments of lower rank ^[40] . Once again, Nestor visited the final of the Grand Slam tournament in a mixed category : with Lina Krasnorutskaya, he became the finalist of the US Open, losing there in a tie-break in the third decisive set to Katarina Srebotnik and court owner Bob Brian ^[41] . In the same year, Nestor played an important role in the Canadian national team entering the Davis Cup World Group. In the transitional match against the Brazilian team, he twice (in singles and paired) defeated the former first racket of the world Gustavo Kuertena , who at that time was in 17th place in the singles ranking. In a meeting with Kuerten in singles, Nestor, according to former captain of the Canadian national team Joseph Brabents, showed the best game in the last 30 years of the history of this team ^[42] . Thus, he brought the score of his victories over the former first racket of the world in the Davis Cup singles to three, considering the victory over Edberg in 1992 and over Rios in 2002 - all in five sets (in other competitions, the Canadian, in addition, managed to beat Andre Agassi, Thomas Muster and Patrick Rafter - the last at the 2000 Olympic Tournament in Australia) ^[9] .

The following year, Nestor and Knowles had five titles - one less than in 2003, but they included a victory in the US Open and two in Masters tournaments, the highest category of ATP tournaments ^[43] . They again reached the semifinals of the Masters Cup and brought the number of matches won together to 300. As a result, Nestor finished the season on the first line in the ATP ranking, sharing it with his partner on the court ^[27] . At the same time, the International Tennis Federation (ITF) did not name them the best couple of the year, but Bob and Mike Brianov , who were inferior to Yunas Bjorkman in the ATP ranking, but who won the Masters Cup and six smaller tournaments, as well as became finalists of the Davis Cup held under the auspices of the ITF ^[43] . At the Olympic Games in Athens, Nestor’s partner was Frederick Niemeyer , and already in the second round they had to cover the rackets after being defeated by third-sown Frenchmen Michael Llodr and Fabrice Santoro ^[44] . 2005 brought Nestor and Knowles another title less, but among them, like the year before, there were two victories in the Masters series tournaments. In the French Open, they became semi-finalists, and in the Masters Cup failed to leave the group ^[45] . The result could possibly be better, but on June 17, the Canadian underwent surgery of the left hand and missed the next two months ^[27] .

In 2006, Nestor and Knowles scored five victories in tournaments, including again in the two highest categories; on the way to the title in Indian Wells, they defeated the Brian brothers who took first place in the ranking, and in Rome - the second pair of the world, Yunas Bjorkman - Maxim Mirny . At Wimbledon, they became semi-finalists, losing to the Brian, and they lost to them in the final of the Masters tournament in Madrid , and in the final of the Cup Masters lost to Bjorkman and Mirny. Prior to one final of the tournament, the Masters Canadian-Bahamian tandem made it to Hamburg , having beaten the Brian in the semifinals, but there Zimbabwean Kevin Ullett and Australian Paul Henley got in his way ^[46] . In the World Team Tennis club league, Nestor, who played for the Philadelphia Freedom team, became the champion and was recognized as the most valuable player in the league ^[47] . He also twice reached the final of the Grand Slam tournaments in mixed doubles - first in Australia and then in France , both times with Elena Likhovtseva ^[48] . In addition to this, this season was a record: in July, Nestor and Knowles won the longest match in the history of double events in Grand Slam tournaments and the longest match in Wimbledon history in all categories at that time, which lasted 6 hours and 9 minutes. With the score 5: 7, 6: 3, 6: 7 (5), 6: 3, 23:21, the Swedish-Australian couple Simon Aspelin - Todd Perry was defeated in the quarterfinals. Only the 5th set of this match lasted more than 3 hours. The previous record for the duration of the doubles match in Grand Slam tournaments was 5 hours 29 minutes - this is how much it took the South Africans Dani Wisser and Peter Aldrich to break the resistance of the Americans Scott Davis and Robert Van't Hof in the Australian Open in 1990; then the 5th set also ended with a score of 23:21. In the 2006 match, the fifth set could have ended earlier - Nestor and Knowles took the game at the rivals pitch at 13:13, and Aspelin and Perry - at the score of 20:20, but both times the losing side managed to equalize immediately, and the Canadian-Bahamian the couple then brought the matter to victory, winning three games in a row ^[49] . Nestor and Knowles remained Wimbledon champions until 2010, when in the first round match , which lasted over 11 hours, John Isner got the upper hand over Nicolas May ^[50] .

In 2007, Nestor again achieved notable success. First, he won his first mixed double title in Grand Slam tournaments, defeating Likhovtseva in the Australian Open . With Knowles, they reached the semi-finals in this tournament ^[51] . Later this season, Nestor brought the number of matches won in men's pairs to 600 ^[27] . With Knowles, he won the third joint title in Grand Slam tournaments, winning the French Open . Having gained one more victory in a year and played three times in the finals (another victory and one final were in the account of Nestor together with Zimonich), they went to the Masters Cup . There they finally achieved victory, defeating Simon Aspelin and Julian Knowle in the final, who had previously been defeated at the group stage ^[52] . Nestor finished the season as the third racket of the world, and he and Knowles were the second pair. The title at the Masters Cup was the fortieth in the joint career of the Canadian and Bahamian tennis players ^[27] , but the last victories in a pair with Knowles were won after Nestor had offered permanent cooperation to Zimonich; for Knowles, this was a shock, and the couple played out the season almost without talking to each other ^[2] . Knowles himself connects the end of the collaboration with the fact that he began to pay more attention to the family (in 2005 he had a son); Nestor’s father, Ray, believes that Knowles, who refused to improve it, became the real reason ^[9] .

2008—2010

Having parted at the end of 2007 with Knowles, Nestor continued his performances in tandem with Zimonich. The new couple, in the arsenal of which added a powerful Serb pitch to the Canadian's perfectly accurate game, has become one of the main contenders for leadership in the world for several years, competing with Bob and Mike Brian ^[53] . Nestor and Zimonich won their first joint title at the end of the previous season in St. Petersburg . The beginning of the year did not bring titles, although the new partners reached the final of the Masters tournament in Indian Wells , where they lost to the Israeli tandem Andy Ram - Yoni Erlich ^[54] . However, in the spring, a period began during which Zimonich and Nestor played in the finals six times in a row. Having lost the final of the Italian Open , they then won the German Open , became finalists at the Roland Garros , and then won one after another three tournaments - the Artois Championships in London, the Wimbledon Tournament and the Canadian Open , continuing the series of won matches to the tournament semi-finals in cincinnati . In two of the four victorious finals - in Hamburg and in Toronto - they beat the Brian brothers. Having led the pair rating after winning the Wimbledon, Zimonich and Nestor held the first place for eight weeks, until the end of the US Open , and returned it to themselves at the end of the season, defeating Brian again - now in the Masters Cup final. In the individual competition, Nestor finished the year in second place in the ranking ^[27] . A victory with Zimonich at the Wimbledon tournament meant for the Canadian to win a career Grand Slam (victory in all four Grand Slam tournaments in different years) and a career Golden Helmet (including victory in the Olympics) ^[55] , and for his partner this title in Grand Slam tournaments became the first ^[2] . In 2008, the status of the 35-year-old Nestor in the Canadian national team in the Davis Cup also changed: while continuing to play for her as a player, he was simultaneously included in the coaching staff, where he became assistant captain of the team Martin Lorando ^[56] .

In 2009, Nestor, together with Zimonich, won nine record titles for himself. They repeated last year's Wimbledon success (after winning the final against Bob and Mike Brian in four sets, three of which ended in a tie-break ^[57] ), they won five tournaments of the ATP Masters series ( Monte Carlo , Rome , Madrid , Cincinnati and Paris ) and won 12 consecutive victories in matches on the ground - in Monte Carlo, Barcelona and Rome. Nestor became the first Canadian tennis player in history to have earned more than a million dollars in prize money in a year. However, in the final tournament the game did not go for the Canadian-Serbian couple, and they did not manage to leave the group, winning only one match out of three in it ^[27] . As a result, the Brian brothers went around them at the finish of the season in the fight for the title of the first couple of the world ^[58] .

For the first half of 2010, Zimonich and Nestor won five tournaments (including Monte Carlo and the French Open ) and played three more times in the finals (including the Australian Open , where they were stopped by the Brian). Even after losing in the second round at Wimbledon, they retained their first place in the ranking. In the second half of the season, the Canadian-Serbian tandem rarely managed to reach the final, after the Canadian Open he lost the first position in the hierarchy of pairs and until November won only one ATP 250 tournament in Vienna . In November, Zimonich and Nestor, however, managed for the second time during joint performances and for the third time in the Canadian's career to win the final tournament of the season , beating Brian in the semifinals ^[59] . Nevertheless, their regular rivals, who also won seven tournaments in a season, including two Grand Slam tournaments, did not give the Canadians and Serbs first place in the ranking of pairs ^[60] , and Nestor finished the year in third place in the individual ranking among players in the doubles discharge ^[27] .

The teamwork and significant successes of the Canadian-Serbian couple on the court did not mean, however, that there were no problems in relations between Nestor and Zimonich. Zimonich himself called these relations friendly; families of players also became close to each other. However, Nestor repeatedly jokingly remarked that they are not particularly friendly or even dislike each other ^[2] . Zimonich had very high requirements for the game of a partner, he constantly feared that Nestor was no longer able to perform at the highest level. Attempts by a Serb, who did not win Grand Slam tournaments to partner with the Canadian, to prove on the court that he was the best player in the pair, led to conflicts and disputes outside the court, and sometimes to injuries (in particular, in the semifinal of the 2008 Wimbledon tournament, when Zimonich extended his left hand) ^[53] .

2011-2012

At the end of the 2010 season, Nestor completed cooperation with Zimonich and announced that next year he would play the competition in tandem with Maxim Mirny - at that time the seventh racket of the world in doubles ^[61] . They had been playing together for some time in 2000 ^[27] , and the Canadian easily made friends with the calm, non-starving Belarusian ^[53] . In Australia, they managed to reach the semifinals, and in mid-February they won the tournament in Memphis . In the French Open, Nestor managed, like a year ago, to win; before that, he and Mirny outplayed the former partner of Nestor, Nenad Zimonic and Mikael Llodr ^[62] . Having defeated the same opponents in the final of the Shanghai Masters in the fall, Nestor became the first tennis player in history to win at least once in all four Grand Slam tournaments, all Masters tournaments, the final tournament of the year and the Olympic Games ^[63] . Later, when Novak Djokovic came close to this indicator in singles, they began to call him “Golden Masters” in the press, but Nestor’s achievement in pairs did not cause much excitement ^[64] . In the final tournament of the season, Nestor won the fourth title in five years, having defeated the Brian brothers in Peace in the semifinals, and defeating the Polish pair Marcin Matkovsky - Mariusz Firstenberg in the final ^[62] . It was his 75th career title ^[27] ; during the season, the canadian also won his 800th doubles victory ^[63] . In addition to victories in male pairs, Nestor won his second mixed double title in Grand Slam tournaments. This, as for the first time, happened in Australia , and this time Katarina Srebotnik, who had been speaking with Zimonich for a long time, was his partner ^[65] .

In the first half of next year, Nestor and Mirny performed without any splashes, but reliably, reaching the semi-finals in the Australian Open and the finals in the highest category tournaments in Miami and Monte Carlo and winning two tournaments of a lower rank. Together, this allowed them to return to first place in the beginning of May in the ranking, which they divided among themselves, ahead of the Brian brothers who occupied it for almost two years ^[66] . At Roland Garros, Nestor and Mirny defeated Brian in two sets in the final, confirming the regularity of being at the head of the rating. It was their second consecutive joint victory in the French Open, and personally for Nestor - the third in a row and fourth in total ^[67] . If from the first seven finals in Grand Slam tournaments during his career, the Canadian won one, then from the next nine - seven ^[2] . After Paris, Nestor and Mirny also won the tournament in London , preceding Wimbledons, again defeating the Brian in the final. In the future, however, the couple performed unsuccessfully, losing at Wimbledon in the second round, and in the US Open in the first. Nestor paired with Vasek Pospisil also lost in the second round of the Olympics in London to Zimonich and Yanko Tipsarevich ^[68] . Nevertheless, the Canadian stayed the first racket of the world until September, when he turned 40 years old and 5 days; he remained the oldest tennis player to ever top the ATP ranking until July 2018, when Mike Brian broke his record ^[69] .

In September, Nestor said that because of an elbow injury, Mirny would probably miss part of the next season and therefore in 2013 he intends to play with another veteran and former first racket of the world - Mahesh Bhupati ^[70] (later he will call this decision a mistake, after which he was no longer able to establish stable cooperation with new partners ^[53] ). Nevertheless, he also paired up with Mirny in the Masters tournament in Paris , where they dropped out of the fight in the quarter finals, and in the final tournament of the year , where, starting with a victory, they then lost the remaining two games in the group and did not end up in the semifinals. In addition, in the fall, Nestor held a tournament in Basel in tandem with his former partner Zimonich and won his 80th title with him ^[68] .

The last years of his career

The first half of 2013 did not bring Nestor new achievements. The exception was the victory in the Davis Cup over the first world team - the Spanish national team . Although Nestor Pospisil lost the doubles match (when the score was 2: 1 for the sets the senior Canadian got a heat stroke and barely finished the game ^[2] ), in the singles Pospisil and Milos Raonic managed to score three points and knock out the permanent contenders for the Davis Cup. Subsequently, Nestor brought the team points in doubles with the Italians in the quarter finals of the World Group and with the Serbs in the semifinals (the Canadians lost this match with a total score of 3: 2, although they played after the second day of games ^[71] ). In June, at Wimbledon , where Kristina Mladenovich was his partner, Nestor won his third mixed career title. Being sown in eighths, on the way to victory, they beat all three of the first seeded pairs, having played two matchballs in the final ^[72] . This final was the second in a row for the French-Canadian couple - before that, Nestor and Mladenovic had already played in the final of the French Open ^[73] . Two new milestones in his career obeyed Nestor in August in Winston-Salem (USA): at first he crossed the line of 900 doubles victories in his career, and then won his 81st title. The Canadian and his Indian partner Leander Paes became the first couple, both of whom were over 40 years old, to win the tournament since the beginning of the Open Era . This victory, however, turned out to be the only one for men in a season, although Nestor played twice in the finals, and the year ended for him only in 25th place in the ranking - for the first time since 2000, outside the top ten ^[27] .

In early 2014, Nestor won a tournament in Brisbane together with Mariusz Firststenberg and immediately after that - a tournament in Sydney with his long-time partner Zimonich ^[74] . In the Australian Open, he won his fourth mixed doubles title in Grand Slam tournaments, with a second in a row with Kristina Mladenovic. The only sowed pair on their way to the title were the sixth-performing Sania Mirza and Horia Tekeu in the final ^[75] . With Zimonich Nestor was sown in Melbourne under the ninth number and reached the semifinals. After that, Nestor and Zimonich lost the finals in Dubai and Barcelona and the semi-finals in Monte Carlo ^[74] . On May 11, having defeated Zimonich in the Masters tournament in Madrid , Nestor outscored Todd Woodbridge in the ATP tournament, becoming the third in the history of professional tennis after Mike and Bob Brian ^[76] . A week later, in the Italian Open, Nestor and Zimonich won their 27th joint title ^[77] . The Roman final, however, was their last one this year: starting from the French Open , where they lost in the quarter finals, their successes declined ^[74] , and towards the end of the season, shortly before the final tournament of the year, they again decided break up ^[78] (Zimonich still managed to win the tournament in Basel with another Canadian - Pospishil ^[79] ). In the final tournament , having won one meeting out of three, Nestor and Zimonich did not leave the group ^[74] .

Nestor’s new partner in 2015 was the Indian Rohan Bopanna ^[78] . In the first months of 2015, Bopanna and Nestor won two joint titles - first in Sydney and then in Dubai ^[27] . In the Australian Open , being sown under the seventh number, they stumbled already in the second round, but in the mixed season, Nestor once again reached the final with Mladenovic, losing there to Martin Hingis and Leander Paes ^[80] . In March, he helped the team stay for another year in the World Cup of the Davis Cup, winning paired with Wasek Pospisil from the Japanese Guo Soeda and Yasutaki Utiyama ^[81] . Nestor held several tournaments in the middle of the season together with Paes, then joining forces on the court with Frenchman Edouard Roger-Wasslen . This duo defeated Marcelo Melo - Ivan Dodig in the second round of the Canadian Open , Ivan Dodig in the final, losing to Mike and Bob Bryan in the first place in the ranking table. A week later, Nestor and his partner took revenge against the Bryans in the third round of Cincinnati Masters (after this victory, the personal score of Nestor's meetings with the Bryans equaled - 29:29 ^[27] ), and in the final they defeated Zimonich and Marcin Matkovsky. Nestor spent the third final together with Roger-Wasslen in the ATP 500 tournament in Beijing , losing to Pospisil and Jack Sok ^[82] . A week later, in the Masters tournament in Shanghai, they reached the semifinals and, up to the last major tournament of the year in Paris, retained the chances of getting into the final championship of the year ^[83] .

After completing 2015 with 999 doubles in his career ^[27] , on January 11 of the following year, Nestor overcame the 1,000 victory in the ATP and Grand Slam tournaments, becoming the first tennis player to reach his doubles in the Open Era (a thousand in singles) and more victories by then were won by Jimmy Connors , Ivan Lendl and Roger Federer ). This victory was won by a Canadian paired with Marcelo Melo ^[84] . In the Australian Open, 43-year-old Nestor and 37-year-old Radek Stepanek , who held only the second tournament together, became the oldest doubles Grand Slam finalists for the Open Era ^[85] . During the season, Nestor played four more times in the finals of the ATP tournaments, having won two titles in two tournaments with Edouard Roger-Wasslen and one more with Dominic Inglot . At the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, he and Vasek Pospischil reached the semifinals, losing to future champions Rafael Nadal and Mark Lopez (both sets in a tie-break), and in the match for third place, he wrote to Sok and Steve Johnson . After that, in Cincinnati, Canadians defeated the first pair of the world, Nicolas May- Pierre-South Erber , also reaching the semifinals ^[86] . However, then in the US Open, Nestor was already in the first round forced to interrupt the game due to an ankle injury ^[87] . Once again, Nestor defeated May and Erber in the fall in the tournament finals in Antwerp with Roger Wasslen ^[27] . He finished the year in 15th place in the ranking ^[88] . By this time, it became increasingly difficult for the Canadian to find permanent partners among younger players, and he jokingly said that the worst couple in the world was “Nestor and anyone with him” ^[10] .

The Davis Cup match in the first round of the 2017 World Group, lost to the British with a score of 2: 3, became for Nestor the 50th in his career. This year, for the first time in 24 years, the Canadian did not win a single title in ATP tournaments, although once (in February) he managed to make it to the finals in the tournament in Montpellier , where local player Fabrice Marten played with him ^[27] . In September, Nestor announced that he intended to end his performances next summer - after the Canadian Open or the US Open 2018 ^[89] . In May 2018, when Bob Brian injured his hip, his twin brother Mike was ready to offer Nestor cooperation, but in the end he chose his compatriot Jack Soke, with whom he won the Wimbledon tournament ^[9] . Nestor spent his 30th Canadian Open in a pair with Vasek Pospisil ^[14] , and on September 16, 2018, shortly after his 46th birthday, also paired with Pospisil, spending his last game as part of the Davis Cup match. The Canadian couple lost this meeting to the Dutch, Jean-Julien Royer and Matva Middelkop 6: 4, 3: 6, 4: 6, 4: 6. Nestor completed his performances with one of six tennis players with a thousand or more victories in the men's professional tour (along with his brothers Brian, Roger Federer , Jimmy Connors and Ivan Landl ) ^[90] .

Journalist Gerald Marzorati, who himself speaks in veteran tournaments, praised Nestor's playing style, noting his equanimity and composure. Marzorati compared Nestor's serve - a ball thrown high from a bent position and a wide-cut blow that makes the player go far to the edge of the court - with John McEnroe's serve (Daniel mastered the short serve to the right sideline at the age of 15 at the beginning of training with Pierre Lamarche ^[2] ). Nestor went to the net slowly and played with her very softly, but for sure, sending the ball to the corners of the court beyond the reach of opponents. When exiting to the net, he himself missed only a very insignificant part of the blows. Marzorati wrote that if it were not for the fragile physique and insufficiently good health, Nestor could have made a successful career not only in doubles, but also in singles ^[91] . The 1990s, in which the Canadian actively played both singles and doubles, were really full of injuries - the hand, elbow, and shoulder (at an earlier stage of his career, in particular, he had to change his grip after a hand injury ^[92] ). This forced him to continue to be extremely attentive to his health and physical form, abandoning sugar-containing drinks that contribute to inflammatory processes and constantly holding a physiotherapist with him instead of a trainer ^[2] . At the same time, a review article on Nestor on the Canadian Sportsnet website mentioned that he had extremely high resistance to pain ^[9] .

Bob Brian , who has played against Nestor for more than a decade and a half, including at the highest level, calls him his most difficult opponent, especially highlighting his serve. In 2012, Brian predicted that due to the filing of Nestor will be able to participate in competitions until the age of 50 ^[92] . Bob's brother, Mike , compared the pitch of the Canadian to the pitch of baseball pitcher Randy Johnson , who also has it “insidiously twisted” ^[9] . The unpredictable distant rebound of the ball after Nestor's filing was also noted by Sebastien Laro, who won the 2000 Olympics with him. He also pointed out the ability of his former partner to alternate between the balls spinning towards and away from the receiver ^[93] . Nestor himself called the game a closed racket a weak point in his style, saying that at the age of 14 his coach unsuccessfully tried to retrain him into a one-handed backhand. The Canadian regretted that this did not succeed, and said that the one-handed backhand could help him in singles. ^[1]

In doubles, Nestor was a very reliable partner. Sébastien Laro said: “You never felt tension playing with Daniel. He never exerted any pressure on you, and you could always calmly do what you usually do ” ^[93] . On the court, he was distinguished by composure and endurance, without arguing with the judge (in the years of partnership with Knowles, it was the latter who took over this part of the game). In the early stages of his career, this composure bordered on indifference to the result and a slight loss of interest in the game - at 12 years old, the future coach Nestor Pierre Lamarch noted this quality with displeasure, and it was emphasized in the press until the late 1990s ^[2] . At the same time, outside the court, the Canadian was distinguished by a sharp language and a rude sense of humor, actively participating in skirmishes with colleagues and not hesitating to arrange pranks for them ^[9] .

Among the major achievements of Daniel Nestor:

• 108 weeks in the rank of the first racket of the world in doubles - a total of 10 times reached this position, the first racket of the world in 2004 (shared a place with Mark Knowles) ^[27] .
• 12 titles in Grand Slam tournaments (8 in the men's doubles and 4 in the mixed), including the career Grand Slam in the men's doubles ^[27] .
• Winning the 2000 Olympic Doubles Tournament . Nestor is the third tennis player in history to have won a career gold helmet in the men's doubles ^[4] .
• 91 titles in ATP tournaments in doubles, including 4 titles in the final ATP tournament , 28 titles in ATP Masters tournaments and 23 consecutive seasons (1994–2016) in which at least one title was won ^[27] .
• The first tennis player in singles or doubles to win all Grand Slam tournaments and all ATP Masters tournaments ^[63] .
• The first tennis player in the history of the men's professional tennis tour to win 1,000 doubles matches ^[84] .
• Records of the Canadian national team in the Davis Cup in terms of the number of seasons played (25), matches (53 - at the end of a career, this was more than double the number of matches played by any other Canadian) ^[94] , doubles wins (33) and a total of (48) ^[95] .

Grand Slam Tournament Finals Career

Central Tournament Performance History - Men's Doubles

During his career, Daniel Nestor was recognized as the best tennis player in Canada 10 times: in 1997, 2000 (together with Sebastien Laro ), 2001, 2003-2005 and 2007-2010 ^[96] . He also became Canada's best tennis player in doubles 16 years in a row ^[97] . In 2002, 2004 and 2008, the Canadian won the ATP Award for the best couple of the year (the first two times with Mark Knowles , and the third with Nenad Zimonich ) ^[39] . In 2012, Nestor became the winner of the Davis Cup Commitment Award ^[98] .

At the end of December 2010, Nestor was promoted to the Order of Canada ^[99] , and in August 2012 he became an Honorary Doctor of the University of York ^[92] . He owns one of the stars on the Canadian Walk of Fame ^[6] . In August 2018, his name was included in the listings of the Tennis Hall of Fame of Canada ^[100] . The name of Daniel Nestor is the tennis center opened in 2013 in Halifax (Nova Scotia) ^[101] .

• Profile on ATP website

• Profile on ITF website
• Profile on the Davis Cup website

• Allen Cameron. Daniel Nestor The Canadian Encyclopedia (March 4, 2015). Date of treatment March 13, 2019.
• Daniel Nestor Canadian Olympic Team Official Website . Date of treatment March 12, 2019.