THE CANADIAN PRESS
PARIS — Canadian Daniel Nestor reached his sixth straight doubles semifinal at the French Open on Monday.
Nestor and Belarussian partner Max Mirnyi defeated American Ryan Harrison and Australian Matthew Ebden 6-4, 6-4 to advance.
The 39-year-old from Toronto won the clay court Grand Slam title last year. Nestor has lifted trophies at Roland Garros three times in the past five years with three different partners.
While not looking too far ahead, Nestor said he is eager to go all the way to another trophy at Roland Garros.
"I’m pretty competitive (and) want to win every match I play," he said. "At a Slam you tend to prepare just that much more.
"It always seems to work that way. We’re not thinking of anything now except trying to do well again here."
The top seeds won in 71 minutes with five combined aces and breaks on three of their nine chances.
Nestor and Mirnyi will bid for the final when they face Italians Daniele Bracciale and Potito Starace, winners over Croatian Ivan Dodig and Ricardo Melo of Brazil 6-2, 6-4.
After winning the first set in just over 30 minutes, Nestor and Mirnyi twice broke their opponents to lead 2-1 in the second. Nestor finished off the set with a stretch volley to claim the win.
Bracciale and Starace have been playing together on clay this season, reaching a semifinal in San Paolo and the quarter-finals in Buenos Aires.
Nestor and Mirnyi beat the Italians in an Australian Open third round meeting four months ago.