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Daniel Nestor wins the Australian Open mixed doubles title

stephanie myles

MELBOURNE, Australia – They were unseeded here, but these days Toronto’s Daniel Nestor and his French partner Kristina Mladenovic are the class of the mixed doubles field.

They proved it again as they strolled to the Australian Open title Sunday.

The 6-3, 6-2 thumping of No. 6 seeds Sania Mirza of India and Horia Tecau of Romania was as routine as most of their five matches this week. They didn’t lose a set.

The May-September pairing (Nestor is 41, Mladenovic just 20) now holds two Grand Slam mixed titles and, as Nestor joked during the trophy ceremony, he’s a popular man in the men’s locker room as prospective suitors for his talented and charming partner sit and wait for him to either skip the mixed, or retire so they can be next in line.

A slideshow of the highlights of Nestor and Mladenovic's victory.

When Mladenovic had just turned 16, she received a wild card into the French Open mixed doubles with young countryman Alexandre Sidorenko.

But Nestor is the first real mixed-doubles partner Mladenovic has ever had – until last year, her women’s doubles ranking hadn’t been good enough to get her into the draws unless she played with one of the top doubles specialists.

“Being young, none of them wanted to play with an unknown,” she said.

She was introduced to Robert Lindstedt of Sweden last spring (Lindstedt won the first men’s doubles Grand Slam title of his career Saturday here), but he was already taken.

He mentioned that his partner at the time, Nestor, was available. But Mladenovic was too shy to ask the man she now calls “my legend”. A short while later, Nestor – who has been through more mixed doubles partners than underwear the last few years – asked her.

The rest was history as they reached the French Open final, losing in a match tiebreak, won Wimbledon, lost the U.S. Open semifinal 12-10 in the match tiebreak, and now, own the Australian Open title.

Nestor has always said the biggest reason his mixed-doubles results have paled in comparison to his peerless record in men’s doubles is because while he’s comfortable moving up and back in the court, he doesn’t move as well side to side and, in mixed, there’s a lot more of that.

“That’s exactly what he told me. In our first matches … I have a pretty good serve and I told myself, ‘he’ll poach’ – and he didn’t. And then in the rallies, he didn’t move. But now we know how each other plays,” Mladenovic said. “He always said, ‘I’m too old, when it goes too fast. I’m staying on my side and going up and back‘. So I know I have to do certain things that maybe the girls don’t do. It means I have to do more, but that’s good for my tennis. And I have to stand up to the guys and not hide.”

In the quarterfinals, Mladenovic took male opponent Leander Paes’ serve and made mincemeat out of it on many occasions. Paes doesn’t have the biggest serve in men’s tennis, but it’s far superior to anything Mladenovic will see on the women’s tour.

And her 180 km/h deliveries didn’t allow Paes to attack on her serve, either.

She said Nestor, renowned for his deadpan look on the court, is as funny as they come and is always cracking her up. But at the same time, he also offers a lot of advice and the wisdom of his accomplishments and experience.

French-born, Mladenovic’s family is Serbian, as is Nestor’s, and she said there’s a commonality there and has become close to his parents, his wife Natasha and their two little girls.

After the victory, Nestor even joked with his partner about going for the mixed Grand Slam.

“Half-joking. I always tell my friends my best chance of winning Grand Slams nowadays are in mixed, so... But obviously I'd still like to win men's doubles titles, too,” Nestor said. “You know, I think I have a good partner in that, too (Nenad Zimonjic). I just think this is the best chance, but I'll keep playing both and hopefully good will come out of it.”