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In lieu of singles, we're talking Canadian doubles again at the French Open

The doubles team known as "Pospisock" put up another victory Friday in Paris.

PARIS – It wasn't very long ago that there was no Genie Bouchard, no Milos Raonic.

Back then (we're talking three years ago, at most) the Canadian tennis scene at a Grand Slam went sort of like this: plenty of aspirants in the singles qualifying, a few here and there who made it through. Then some early exits - with the occasional good effort by Aleksandra Wozniak.

And then, it was Daniel Nestor time until the final Sunday.

We may have started to take the efforts by Bouchard and Raonic a little for granted, because in this exceptional year in Paris with Raonic on the shelf and Bouchard already out, it's sort of a "retro" Roland Garros - which isn't necessarily a great thing.

In other words, it's Daniel Nestor time again. The only difference is that those lean singles years were Nestor's Slam-winning years. At 42, he may still have a couple of big titles in him, but he's not coming into this year's French Open with a lot of wins, nor a whole lot of confidence.

So far, so good. Nestor and partner Leander Paes are safely into the third round of men's doubles after a 7-6, 6-2 victory over Julian Knowle of Austria and Andre Begemann of Germany Friday.

Here's how it looked.

It was, to say the least, a veteran match. Nestor is 42; Paes is 41, Knowle, a lefty who teamed up with Canadian Vasek Pospisil at the Australian Open the last two years (only to find himself out early when Pospisil pulled out of the doubles due to injury) also is 41. Begemann was the baby of the bunch at 30.

The next match for Nestor and Paes should pose a more significant challenge, as they face Italians Fabio Fognini and Simone Bolelli, who won the Australian Open title in January.

On the other end of the scale, Vasek Pospisil (all of 24) and partner Jack Sock (just 22) also are in the third round of the men's doubles after a 6-4, 6-4 win over Robert Lindstedt (38) and Jurgen Melzer (34).

If you're getting the idea that No. 2 seeds Pospisil and Sock are virtual puppies in a game of grown-up doggies, you'd be right. Their next opponents will be the No. 14 seeds (and home-country favorites), Pierre-Hughes Herbert and Nicolas Mahut.

As it happened, Herbert and Mahut were the finalists in Australia this year.

Pospisil came out for this match with an ankle brace for his right ankle, to match the one on his sprained left ankle. He was starting to have a few issues with the right foot, overcompensating. But he looked to be moving well throughout – the best he has so far in Paris.

The Canadian sported matching ankle braces Friday in Paris. (Stephanie Myles/opencourt.ca)
The Canadian sported matching ankle braces Friday in Paris. (Stephanie Myles/opencourt.ca)

Nestor returned to the court later in the day with mixed doubles partner Kristina Mladenovic, the Frenchwoman who defeated Genie Bouchard in the first round of singles on Tuesday.

They had their issues with the French pair of Mathilde Johansson and Adrian Mannarino, but finally prevailed 4-6, 6-3, 10-8 in the match tiebreak.

Nestor had played well overall in the men's doubles – and served particularly well when he had to. But in the mixed, he started slowly. You don't often see signs of frustration from him on the court, but they were in evidence Friday. His partner didn't help much. And for a little over a set, Johansson and Mannarino were on fire.

This was only the second mixed-doubles match of Mannarino's career; the first was a loss at last year's French, also with Johansson. Johansson has played a little more, including the Hopman Cup team exhibition event two years ago with Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (they went 0-3). But for about 45 minutes, they were locked in.

Finally, Nestor and Mladenovic started getting the ball in the court, and their superior experience – they have two Grand Slam titles together – prevailed. But just barely.

Their next opponents will be Anastasia Rodionova of Australia and Aisam Qureshi of Pakistan.