Thursday, November 26, 2009 11:10 AM
Nestor denies breakup imminent
Tom Tebbutt
Signs of harmony between Daniel Nestor and his partner Nenad Zimonjic were hard to come by during the ATP World Tour Finals in London this week.
As the No. 1-ranked team in the world, they lost their first two round-robin matches – 6-4, 6-4 to Mariusz Frystenberg and Marcin Matkowski of Poland and 6-3, 6-4 to Frantisek Cermak and Michal Mertinak of the Czech Republic – and in doing so showed virtually no signs of communication except for the ritual tapping of the hands after every point and brief exchanges about strategy.
During changeovers, they sat stoically beside each other, rarely saying anything. Then, Nestor would get up 30 seconds or so before Zimonjic and walk back out onto the court alone awaiting the start of the next game.
Having already been eliminated, with no chance of reaching Saturday’s semi-finals, Nestor and Zimonjic picked up their play today, defeating Mahesh Bhupathi and Mark Knowles 6-4, 7-6(9) after rallying from a 2-6 deficit in the second-set tiebreak. They saved six set points in all in the second set against a team that was 2-0 in the round-robin phase and already guaranteed a semi-final spot.
Before today’s match began, Ashley Fisher, an Australian doubles player who is ranked No. 41 and is doing commentary on the TennisTV feed from the O2 Arena in London, could be heard saying off-mike about Nestor and Zimonjic, “they don’t even talk and they were best man at each other’s weddings.”
He then added something to the effect that there was speculation that Nestor and Zimonjic might be splitting up.
To begin with, Nestor and Zimonjic, who were both born in Belgrade, Serbia, were not best men at each other’s wedding, in fact they did not even attend each other’s weddings.
It also appears any suggestion that they may be splitting up is incorrect.
Shortly after his victory today over his former partner Knowles and Bhupathi, Nestor said by phone from London, “we’ve just had a bad run of matches, nothing more than that.
“It would be strange to be splitting up after winning nine tournaments and a Slam (Wimbledon) this year.”
In conclusion, Nestor insisted, “it’s all gossip. As far as I know we’re playing Doha, Sydney (at the start of 2010) and arranging coaching and all that.”
It is actually Bhupathi and Knowles who are splitting for next season. Bhupathi will be playing with Max Mirnyi while Knowles is set to team with Mardy Fish, who has been out of action with a rib/abdominal problem since August.
“When they do play, they’ll be dangerous,” Nestor said about Knowles – Fish. “But he (Fish) is coming off an injury and it’ll be challenging.”
As far as Nestor and Zimonjic maintaining their No. 1 position as a team and finishing on top in 2009, they will do so unless No. 2-ranked Bob and Mike Bryan end up winning this week’s season-ending event in London.
AD-IN
Tennis Canada announced today that women’s national team coach Sylvain Bruneau of Montreal will be replacing Rene Simpson-Collins as Fed Cup captain after Canada plays in the Americas Zone playoffs early in 2010.
Simpson-Collins has been captain since 2001 and has 21 years experience a Fed Cup player, coach and captain.
