Daniel Nestor teams with former doubles partner to claim 80th career title
Daniel Nestor reunited with former doubles partner Nenad Zimonjic in Switzerland and the former team was able to capture their second Swiss Indoors Basel title Sunday, defeating Treat Conrad Huey and Dominic Inglot 7-5, 6-7 (4).
It was Nestor's first ATP doubles title since June -- when he and partner Max Mirnyi defeated twin brothers Bob and Mike Bryan -- and it also represents the 80th doubles title of his career.
He told the ATP website after winning on Sunday:
"It feels good to reach the milestone. It's nice to win again, as Max [Mirnyi] and I have struggled a little bit. I started playing well again this week, so hopefully we can finish strong in Paris and London.
"Playing with Nenad is always fun, we've had a lot of success together. He is one of the best on tour. It is always nice being on the same side as him. He played great, hitting a lot of big serves when we needed them. We both played well when we need to. It was a very close match and it was the difference of one or two points."
Zimonjic also admitted it was fun playing with his former partner:
"I felt like we played one week ago. We didn't have to adjust almost anything. We played two or three training sets at the beginning of the week. We actually played against them twice here. Both times it was close matches, so it was amazing to play them in the final. At the end we were a little bit lucky, but we played some good shots on the big points. I am happy to win another title after a tough season for me."
Ironically the last time Zimonjic and Nestor teamed up was nearly two years ago when they defeated Mirnyi and Mahesh Bhupathi at the ATP World Tour Finals in 2010.
After that victory Nestor and Zimonjic parted ways and the Canadian decided to partner with Mirnyi. Together they won back-to-back French Open titles and spent time at the top of the ATP Rankings, but early exits from Wimbledon and the US Open may have been the beginning of the end for the tandem, and as Tom Tebbutt reported in September, they'll be splitting following the 2012 season.
Zimonjic isn't the longterm plan for Nestor though. The 40-year-old Canadian is expected to team with 38-year-old Mahseh Bhupathi of India in 2013. Bhupathi is currently ranked 16th in the ATP Doubles Rankings and he and partner Rohan Bopanna upset Nestor and Mirnyi in the quarterfinal of the Shanghai Masters earlier this month.