THE CANADIAN PRESS
MONTE CARLO — Canada’s Daniel Nestor and Serbian partner Nenad Zimonjic began the European clay season with a second straight title at the Monte Carlo Masters, winning 6-3, 2-0 when opponents Mahesh Bhupathi of India and Max Mirnyi of Belarus retired Sunday.
The 43-minute match ended suddenly with a Bhupathi injury after Mirnyi had been broken for the second time in the contest to drop to 0-2 in the second set.
"I’m sorry for those guys, it was a tough way for us to win," said Toronto’s Nestor. "They’ve been playing really well and made the finals in Miami.
"We expect them to be in many more finals and hope to be playing them again."
Nestor and Zimonjic, who became the first back-to-back winners at the tournament since Jonas Bjorkman and Todd Woodbridge winners in 2001-2002, hopes that the success at backing up their trophy from a year ago at the Country Club bodes well.
A year ago, the pair went on a spring tear, winning Monte Carlo, Barcelona, Rome and Madrid before falling in the French Open semifinals.
The title was the third for the team this season after Sydney and Rotterdam.
The pair will return to the top of the ATP doubles rankings after improving their career doubles final mark to 19-9. They now stand 21-5 on the season.
Nestor remains the player with the most titles on the ATP, with his total now boosted to 67 (24 or those coming at the Masters 1000 level).
The top-seed got their opening break of the match in the seventh game as Bhupathi lost serve, with Nestor then taking his team to 5-3.
A game later, Mirnyi double-faulted to yield a set point, and then lost the set 6-3 on a volley into the net.