Nestor Bids Farewell To Rogers Cup After 30 Years

Daniel Nestor drew a line under his Rogers Cup career on Wednesday night, but the 45-year-old remains hopeful that wild cards may briefly extend his ATP World Tour farewell.

The 45-year-old, who plans to retire from professional tennis in September, was competing at the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament for the 30th straight year and fought hard with fellow Canadian Vasek Pospisil in Toronto. Spaniards Feliciano Lopez and Marc Lopez triumphed 6-7(6), 6-2, 10-6 over one hour and 36 minutes.

Nestor and Pospisil saved one set point at 5/6 in the first set tie-break, but lost the first four games of the second set. They battled back from a 1/5 deficit to 6/7 in the Match tie-break, but couldn’t deny the Spaniards, who next play fourth seeds Mike Bryan and Jack Sock in the second round.

“I was planning on playing the next two [Western & Southern Open and the US Open],” admitted Nestor. “It depends on wild cards and all that. It’s out of my control, but I would like to play Davis Cup as my last match… That was the plan all along.”

Elsewhere, Grigor Dimitrov and David Goffin, who both contested the championship match at last year’s Nitto ATP Finals, knocked out all-French duo Jeremy Chardy and Lucas Pouille 7-6(5), 6-4 for a second-round meeting against top seeds Oliver Marach and Mate Pavic.

Pablo Carreno Busta and Joao Sousa will face second seeds Henri Kontinen and John Peers after coming through a 4-6, 6-2, 10-4 victory over Edouard Roger-Vasselin and Fernando Verdasco in 77 minutes.

Ben McLachlan and Matwe Middelkoop struck seven aces to edge past Borna Coric and Robin Haase 5-7, 6-3, 10-7 in 75 minutes. They will now prepare to meet seventh seeds Jean-Julien Rojer and Horia Tecau in the second round.