THE CANADIAN PRESS
MADRID — Toronto’s Daniel Nestor and Serbian partner Nenad Zimonjic will head to the French Open as the top seeds after beating Swede Simon Aspelin and South African Wesley Moodie in the men’s doubles final Sunday at the Madrid Open.
Nestor and Zimonjic captured their fourth clay title in five weeks with a 6-4, 6-4 victory. They had won doubles crowns previously in Monte Carlo, Barcelona and Rome. Their only setback this spring was a first-round loss last week in Belgrade.
Still, the dynamic duo has won 16 of its last 17 matches.
"We are playing just unbelievable," said Nestor. "Our game is really coming together, especially with Nenad’s huge serving. We’re working well as a team, that’s been the key to this success.
Zimonjic concluded the victory in 71 minutes on the first of two match points. Nestor’s team combined for five aces and recorded two service breaks.
Nestor, 36, and his partner have overtaken slumping American twins Bob and Mike Bryan atop the ATP rankings and defeated Juan Martin del Potro of Argentina and American Mardy Fish in semifinal action early Sunday morning to advance to the title match.
"After playing that late match Saturday, we had to come back out firing from the start," Nestor said. "We played good tennis, it’s great to win another title on the clay."
The Bryans, who appeared to have a lock on the year-end No. 1 status, lost to Nestor and Zimonjic in the Monte Carlo and Rome finals. They’ve also pulled out of their last French Open tuneup at Dusseldorf, Germany, this week due to injury.
Nestor and Zimonjic also won the Rotterdam indoor title in February and were the runners-up in Doha and Sydney in January. They now stand 26-7 on the season.
Nestor and Zimonjic — the 2008 ATP Masters Cup champions, Wimbledon winners and French Open finalists — will now be the team to beat in Paris. They will train in the French capital next week in preparation for the Grand Slam event.
"Being top seeds at a grand slam is a big job," said Nestor. "Everyone will really be trying to beat us now in every match."
Nestor competed in his 102nd career doubles final, improving his overall record to 60-42.
He is no stranger to success in Madrid, having won the doubles title three times with former partner Mark Knowles in 2002, 2004 and 2005 when the event was played indoors.
The second seeds started well on serve with a Zimonjic ace to make it 1-1 before a break that paved the way to success in the opening set. A break to begin the second insured the victory over a doubles team playing together for just the third time.