THE CANADIAN PRESS
ROTTERDAM, Netherlands — Top seeds Daniel Nestor of Toronto and Serbian partner Nenad Zimonjic reached the final of the ABN Amro tournament with a 7-5, 7-6 (8-6) victory Saturday over Swede Robert Lindstedt and Austria’s Julian Knowle.
Nestor and Zimonjic needed more than 90 minutes to move into their second straight final at the Ahoy arena after winning the trophy a year ago.
They await the winner between Sweden’s Simon Aspelin and Australian Hanley versus second-seeds Frantisek Cermak of the Czech Republic and Slovak Michael Mertinak.
"Both of those teams are tough and we’ve lost to both of them the last time we played," said Nestor of his two-time Wimbledon championship team. "We know them very well."
Nestor and Zimonjic are bidding for their second title this season after winning Sydney prior to playing the final at the Australian Open, where they lost to Americans Bob and Mike Bryan, who also took back the No. 1 team ranking.
Nestor and Zimonjic produced 13 aces and two breaks of serve to prevail — their 12th victory of the season against two defeats.
"It feels great to get this win," said Nestor. "We weren’t playing our best, but I like the way we fought back when we were down. Those guys kept the match close all the way through."
Nestor and Zimonjic claimed the opening set with a break in the final game. In the second set, the opposition saved a match point on the way into a tiebreaker.
Lindstedt and Knowle grabbed a 3-0 tiebreak lead before Nestor and Zimonjic hailed them in, finally taking a 5-4 edge.
The Canadian saved a set point for the challengers with an ace and then rifled over a big serve to yield a second match point. A Zimonjic winner completed the victory.
In singles, Robin Soderling upset second-seeded Nikolay Davydenko 7-6, (3) 6-4 Saturday and will attempt to become the first Swedish winner of the tournament in nearly two decades.
Anders Jarryd’s win in 1993 was Sweden’s last.
Davydenko fought back from 5-2 down to force a first set tiebreak, which went Soderling’s way after the Russian double-faulted. It was Soderling’s first career tiebreak win over Davydenko.
A break in the ninth game of the second set ensured victory for third-seeded Soderling, who lost the 2008 final to Michael Llodra.
"It’s always tough, he is the best returner on the whole tour," Soderling said. "I very happy to beat one of the best players in the world."
Soderling plays either top seed Novak Djokovic or 2007 champion Mikhail Youzhny in Sunday’s final. The two meet later Saturday.