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Daniel Nestor notches 90th ATP Tour title in Washington D.C.

stephanie myles
Daniel Nestor notches 90th ATP Tour title in Washington D.C.

Daniel Nestor likes the heat and humidity about as much as Olympics partner Vasek Pospisil does – which is to say, not at all.

But despite being treated for heat-related issues after the match and having his team get broken serving for the match at 5-3 in the second set, the 43-year-old had enough during to team up with France's Edouard Roger-Vasselin and win the Citi Open doubles title Sunday in Washington, D.C.

The pair, seeded No. 2, defeated Lukasz Kubot of Poland and Alexander Peya of Austria 7-6 (3), 7-6 (4) in the final.

"I feel fortunate, considering the conditions. I'm fortunate the humidity wasn't a factor as much, but the heat was pretty terrible. It was an up-and-down match for both teams. We won a couple more big points than they did," Nestor said in a press conference later.

He missed the trophy presentation while he was being treated.

D.C. marked the third consecutive ATP Tour final for Nestor on three different surfaces. He won in Nottingham on grass with Dominic Inglot of Great Britain before Wimbledon, and reached the final in Hamburg after Wimbledon on clay with Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi of Pakistan.

The veteran pair survived a scare in the very first round, when they came up against the very tall, hard-hitting young Americans Reilly Opelka and Taylor Fritz.

Both are 18; Nestor said after the match that the serve of Opelka, who is pushing 7-feet tall, is right up there with the biggest servers on the ATP Tour like John Isner and Ivo Karlovic not only because of its power and trajectory, but the fact that he also incorpirates a nasty kick serve and some variety.

The 4-6, 7-6 (4), 10-8 win (which included saving a match point) featured the only set the veteran team lost the entire week.

Nestor and Roger-Vasselin (whose regular partner is countryman Julien Benneteau) had a great hard-court summer a year ago while Benneteau was out injured.

They lost in a match tiebreak in the final of the Rogers Cup in Montreal to the Bryan brothers, then went right to Cincinnati, beat the No. 1 Bryans in the quarter-finals and won the title.

 

 

Roger-Vasselin and Benneteau, who can't compete at the Olympics with two distinguished pairs already in the lineup for France, will be back together this week at the Rogers Cup in Toronto while Nestor teams up with Pospisil.

Nestor earns 500 ranking points with the win, and will move up one spot in the ATP Tour doubles rankings to No. 8. It's a nice cushion going into the Rogers Cup and Cincinnati where he will be defending a whopping 1,600 total points – nearly one-third of his total on the 52-week computer. There are no ranking points at the Olympics.

Nestor remains third on the all-time list with his 90 titles.