Daniel Mark Nestor (born on September 4, 1972, in Belgrade, Serbia, is a Serbian-born Canadian tennis player from the Toronto, Ontario, area.
In his career so far he has won 65 men's doubles titles, including a gold medal at the 2000 Summer Olympics, the Tennis Masters Cup, and 5 Grand Slam men's doubles titles. In addition, Nestor won the 2007 Australian Open mixed doubles title with Elena Likhovtseva. This pairing also reached the finals of the 2006 Australian Open and the 2006 French Open. Nestor reclaimed the Men's doubles world #1 ranking, after winning doubles at Wimbledon. On July 4, 2009, Nestor and his partner, Nenad Zimonjić, repeated as doubles champions at Wimbledon. His 65 doubles titles makes him the most decorated champion active and he is the only player in tennis history to have won all the Grand Slams and Masters Series events at least once.
Tennis career
He won three Grand Slam doubles titles together with longterm partner Mark Knowles of the Bahamas. The tandem won the 2002 Australian Open, the 2004 U.S. Open and the 2007 French Open. He and Knowles also reached the final of the 1995 Australian Open, the 1998 French Open and U.S. Open, the 2002 French Open and Wimbledon, the 2003 Australian Open and the 2005 Wimbledon He became the number one ranked doubles player in the world in August, 2002. Nestor's career high singles ranking is World No. 58, which he reached in August, 1999. In mixed doubles, he reached the 2003 U.S. Open final and the 2006 Australian Open final, as well as winning the mixed doubles event at the 2007 Australian Open with partner Elena Likhovtseva.
In the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia, Nestor and partner Sébastien Lareau won a gold medal in men's doubles tennis.
He has been a member of the Canadian Davis Cup team since 1992. He first came to prominence in the public eye that year by defeating Stefan Edberg in a hard fought match in Vancouver.
Nestor won his first doubles title in Bogotá, Colombia with Knowles in 1994. They defeated French Open champions Luke and Murphy Jensen in the final.
On July 5, 2006, he participated in the longest match in Wimbledon history, lasting 6 hours and 9 minutes.
Daniel parted ways with long-time doubles partner Mark Knowles after the 2007 U.S. Open, then started a partnership with Nenad Zimonjić.He won a doubles title with Zimonjić at the 2007 St. Petersburg Open. Nestor and Zimonjić advanced to the 2007 Paris Masters final as the second seeds, but lost 6–3, 7–6 (4) to #1 Doubles team Bob and Mike Bryan.
Knowles partnered Nestor once again, and won the 2007 Tennis Masters Cup. It was a fitting end for one of the most Successful Doubles teams to ever play the game. They defeated Simon Aspelin and Julian Knowle 6–3, 6–2 to take their first Tennis Masters Cup title.This team doesn't plan to play with each other again. Nestor opted to be with Zimonjic instead because he wanted a partner with a big serve considering that shorter rallies would be more suitable for his aging. It was reported in the New York Times that "on the tour, it’s known that they (Nestor and Zimonjic) joined up, after years in the Top 5 with other partners, specifically to usurp the Bryans."
In 2008, Nestor and Zimonjić won the Hamburg Masters and Queen's Club Championships. They reached the final of the French Open, Indian Wells Masters and Rome Masters. He captured the 2008 Wimbledon title for the first time, winning 7–6, 6–7, 6–3, 6–3 over Jonas Björkman and Kevin Ullyett. Thus he managed to win a career Golden Slam. In 2009 they won the Wimbledon title again and won nine titles, losing in the last tournament of the year twice, giving the Bryans no.1 An Australian Open Runner Up with Zimonjic, they bumped back up to No.1, making up for an embarrassing past two years at the tournament.
At the 2009 US Open, Nestor was fined US$5,000 for unsportsmanlike conduct towards some fans who were rooting for his quarterfinal opponents by cheering at Nestor's team unforced errors.
Personal
His Serbian parents moved to Canada short of his 4th birthday in 1976 and settled in Toronto where he attended Northview Heights Secondary School due to a special sports program known as APGA ( Academic program for gifted athletes). In July 2005 Nestor married Natasha Gavrilovic, his girlfriend of two years. They welcomed their first daughter, Tiana Alexis, on December 15, 2008, only two weeks after his doubles partner Zimonjić and his wife had twins.The couple now resides in the Bahamas.
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