Canada’s Quiet Champion

Albert Einstein once said, “The only source of knowledge is experience.” If that is indeed the case then Daniel Nestor must be quite the knowledgeable guy. Nestor has taken twenty-five years of knowledge and experience in professional tennis and translated it into unparalleled success. Earlier this year in Sydney he became the first doubles player in the history of the ATP World Tour to win 1000 matches. Add that to the already impressive resume Nestor has compiled and you have a Hall of Fame career that seems like it could go on forever.

At 43 years old, Daniel Nestor has achieved pretty much everything there is to accomplish in the tennis world and yet he keeps going. His Grand Slam collection includes one Australian Open, four titles at Roland Garros, two on the lawns of Wimbledon and one at the U.S. Open. He also has an Olympic Gold Medal from the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, four year-end ATP championshipsand four mixed-doubles Grand Slams as well. With a total of 88 doubles titles to his name, Nestor is unequivocally one of the most accomplished tennis players of all time. Off the court he has been recognized for his achievements with the Order of Canada in 2010 and a year later a star on Canada’s Walk of Fame in Toronto.

Nestor has attained all of this success with as little fanfare as possible. In the words of Peter Mansbridge, he is “our Gretzky of tennis” and yet don’t look for a statue of Nestor outside of the Aviva Centre in Toronto. His notoriety within the tennis world is well established and Canadian tennis fans are quick to mention Nestor as the most accomplished player from our country that we have ever seen. When it comes to the media and casual fans however, he is rarely mentioned or singled-out. Perhaps the absence of coverage stems in-part from the laid back personality that Nestor exhibits. Classically Canadian, nobody would ever describe him as being flashy on or off the court. In his post match press conferences Nestor is quick to heap praise on his partner and also his opponents. There is never anything boastful or self-indulgent from him whatsoever. There are no scandals or gossip to tarnish his reputation. Happily married and with two children, the self-professed introvert prefers to let his racquet do the talking and in that regard he has made as much noise as anyone in the sport of tennis.

Nestor himself never complains about the lack of attention and admits that the reality is that doubles takes a backseat to singles in terms of popularity and coverage in the tennis world. The spotlight in tennis has never been pointed towards the doubles tour and that is clearly why Nestor has managed to avoid it for the most part of his lengthy career.

While never making his mark on the singles tour, Nestor does have some accomplishments in that regard that are worth noting. In 1992, a 19 year old Nestor defeated world number one, Stefan Edberg, in Davis Cup play in a tight five set match. Nestor was ranked 238th in the world at the time. He made the fourth round of Wimbledon in 1999 only to lose to a fellow by the name of Pete Sampras. He reached a career high in singles of 58th in the world later that summer. In 2000 at the Olympic Games in Sydney where he captured gold in doubles with Sebastien Laureau, Nestor also managed to make it to the third round of singles competition. Along the way he defeated Patrick Rafter in straight sets. By the beginning of the 21st century, Nestor slowly regressed from entering singles tournaments and made a solid career move by choosing to focus exclusively on doubles. The rest, as they say, is history.

Except that it’s not history for Nestor as he continues to compete in the sport he loves so much and, despite less frequent finishes in the winner’s circle, he still maintains a constant presence in the top of the doubles rankings. At press time Nestor is ranked 14th in the world. He started 2016 partnering Radek Stepanek (who at the age of 37 must have felt pretty young playing alongside Nestor) and the duo made it to the finals of the Australian Open where they took the opening set before being beaten by Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares 2-6, 6-4, 7-5. After a third round exit at the French Open, where he partnered with Aisam-ulhaq Qureshi of Pakistan, Nestor’s Olympic hopes for Rio seemed unlikely. His frequent Davis Cup doubles partner, Vasek Pospisil, has elected to play doubles at the Games with Milos Raonic which has left his mentor on the outside looking in. As he is currently outside of the top ten, Nestor cannot qualify for Rio without the higher ranked Pospisil taking him along for the ride so to speak. If the time has come to pass the torch to Pospisil and Raonic at the Olympics, Nestor says he is more than satisfied with the five previous summer Olympic Games that he has already participated in. Despite the certain disappointment, he has opted yet again to keep it classy.

Nestor has already influenced the growth of the sport in our country in immeasurable ways. Not only did he get us through the dark years where Canada was an after-thought in the world of professional tennis but he led by example on and off the court to a group of younger players like Raonic and Pospisil as well as others like Philip Bester, Frank Dancevic and Peter Polansky who also benefitted from his mentorship. Nestor has been like a playercoach on the Davis Cup squad in recent years and the annual international competition is his main motivator for continuing to play well into his forties.

Nestor yearns for the only piece of major hardware to have eluded him throughout his decorated career – a Davis Cup championship. While most would have laughed at the prospect of a Canadian team winning the event a few years ago, it is now a possibility that is well within reach thanks to the depth of coach Martin Laurendeau’s squad. Raonic and Pospisil give Canada a one-two singles punch that is on-par with most of the other top tennis countries in the world and Nestor’s continued presence in the doubles allows Raonic to rest himself on the middle day of competition, while he forms with Pospisil to make a dangerous duo for any nation. Canada advanced to the Davis Cup semi-fi nals in 2013 for the fi rst time in their history but fell to Serbia in a tie that went the distance. The past two years have seen injuries derail Canada’s hopes, but the window of opportunity is still very much open and Nestor would clearly love to be a part of a Canadian victory. In a career that has seen him experience just about every other type of victory there is, it would be a fi tting way for him to close-out his illustrious career.

When asked about retirement – a question he has increasingly received over the past several years – Nestor says that he will continue to play for as long as his ranking and his body will allow him to. In typical Nestor form he also half-jokes that his continued presence on Tour will be “partner-dependant” although I would imagine there is a long list of players on the Tour who would jump at the chance to share a court with the Canadian legend and benefit from his knowledge and experience. Knowledge and experience that will remain active in those he has helped along the way. Daniel Nestor is indeed Canada’s quiet champion and we should be proud to call him our own.

Mike McIntyre is a high school teacher, tennis enthusiast, tennis blogger and regular contributor to Ontario Tennis. Check out his PRO TENNIS FAN blog site at www.protennisfan.com or follow him on Twitter @protennisfan