TENNIS DOUBLES SPECIALIST DANIEL NESTOR FINISHES HIS CAREER AT DAVIS CUP 2018

Written by: Staff on 17th September 2018

TENNIS DOUBLES SPECIALIST DANIEL NESTOR FINISHES HIS CAREER AT DAVIS CUP 2018 |

Congratulations @danielnestor1 on being inducted into the Canadian Tennis Hall of Fame! #NestorForever – Photo by @TennisCanada via Instagram.

Daniel Nestor’s 28 years long illustrious tennis career finally came to a dramatic but ultimately disappointing close as he and partner Vasek Pospisil suffered a four-set loss in the World Group qualification play off against the Netherlands in Davis Cup this weekend.

Not all was lost for the Canadian team however when Milos Raonic beat Scott Griekspoor in three sets to give Canada a 3-1 win in Nestor’s hometown of Toronto over The Dutch Team.

However 46-year-old Nestor, who was honoured in a pre-match ceremony inducting him into Canada’s Tennis Hall of Fame, was looking to finish his career in his 53rd Davis Cup tie with a doubles victory. He announced on June 20, 2018, that this match would be his last.

Nestor’s disappointment was obvious as he admitted: “I wanted to play one more season and this match was one of the most important of the year for me and obviously I wanted to play better.

‘I prepared pretty well for it and I was playing well in practice, but my level’s just not good enough anymore.”

Nestor and Pospisil lost 6-3, 3-6, 4-6, 4-6 to the Dutch pairing of Matwe Middelkoop and Jean-Julien Rojer in front of a large and noisy partisan crowd at Toronto’s Coca-Cola Coliseum.

“When it was announced that we were playing in September in Toronto I was really looking forward to it,” said Nestor. “I wanted to win this match. The other tournaments I went to, playing these events one last time was fun, having my family with me, but this match was important for me, but I’m just not good enough anymore.”

Canadian captain Frank Dancevic felt for Nestor and would have loved to have seen his veteran to go out on a winning note. However he was always confident of victory in the tie and said: “We were in a good position, the doubles guys gave their hearts out there today and we ended up going down, but that’s the nature of Davis Cup competition.

“But it was advantage for us. We were always going to go out there and get the business done.”

After the match, Nestor addressed the crowd, thanking them for their support over the decades. The player who immigrated to Canada just before his fourth birthday from his birthplace in Belgrade, Serbia, will be inducted into Canada’s Tennis Hall of Fame in a public ceremony before Raonic’s match with Haase on Sunday.

“I consider him one of my really good friends, so it’s tough to see him go,” said Pospisil. “Honestly, it was an honour to be on the court with him. I really wanted to win this with him in his last match.

“It’s been a pretty fun ride playing with Daniel over the years and I’ll be sad to see him go.”

Nestor can look back on eight Grand Slam doubles titles he has won with a variety of partners. However the highpoint of his career was probably winning gold for Canada at the 2000 Sydney Olympics alongside Sebastien Lareau.