Nestor Records 1,000th Doubles Match Win

Only three singles players – Jimmy Connors, Ivan Lendl and Roger Federer – have passed the 1,000 match wins milestone in the 44-year history of the ATP World Tour. Today, the sport’s first doubles player, Daniel Nestor, 43 years young, has achieved the feat.

The cut and thrust nature of professional doubles does not lend itself to patience, so when a team experiences a string of losses morale inevitably suffers and each player begins to look elsewhere. So it is incredible that over the past 23 seasons, the Canadian has won matches with 33 partners – from his very first victory with Sebastian Lareau at Auckland in January 1993 to today’s win with Marcelo Melo in the Apia Sydney International first round.

Nestor has ranked among the finest doubles players for the past 20 years, a product of his dedication, commitment, longevity and, most importantly, desire to adapt and evolve. In 15 of the past 20 seasons, he has been among the Top 10 in the Emirates ATP Doubles Rankings – including two year-end No. 1 finishes in 2004 and 2008.

“When I first started playing with Mark Knowles [in 1995] that was my best season and when I felt I was a top player,” Nestor told ATPWorldTour.com. “It was king of sporadic. I’d had big wins with Sebastian Lareau, some good tournaments but confidence wise it took longer in singles than in doubles. When I played against the best players I felt confident immediately.”

His greatest success have come with four partners: Knowles (464 wins, 40 titles, including three majors); Nenad Zimonjic (227 wins, 27 titles, including three majors); Max Mirnyi (90 wins, eight titles, including two majors) and his compatriot Lareau (60 wins, five titles, including the 2000 Sydney Olympics gold medal). He has lifted 88 doubles titles overall – third in the all-time list.

“It’s an incredible achievement,” Knowles told ATPWorldTour.com. “He has had a remarkably long career and has been able to achieve tremendous success throughout. I was fortunate to be on the same side of the net with Daniel for so many of those victories. He continues to adapt to a changing environment and finds motivation where others might not. One thousands wins is nothing short of spectacular. Congratulations!”

Laconic and laid back, with a sharp sense of humour, Nestor has never taken himself too seriously. But the stress to remain among the elite takes its toll. “I am competitive, I have always felt the losses more than enjoyed the wins,” said Nestor.

“You have these tough losses that you deem are far worse, if you deem to get better. I have tried to be the best I can be. I have regrets in singles, but in doubles, I have felt I have done everything that I could. It takes a lot out of you, the stress. I’m one of the guys who is a perfectionist, so little things bother me; when I haven’t played so well at big tournaments; leads to fatigue later in tournaments.”

Nestor has never possessed a big weapon: a devastating serve or blistering forehand, like so many in the modern era, yet his all-round game has been consistently spectacular. Only in humid conditions does his body react, as he experienced with Knowles en route to the 2002 Rogers Cup final. “I have had to work the most on my physical strength as my fitness and footwork was always an issue,” said Nestor. “So I’ve always worked hard off-court, rather than tennis stuff.”

“His longevity is pretty amazing,” Mike Bryan told ATPWorldTour.com. “He’s been one of the top players in the world for so long and he’s the only guy to beat us 25 plus times. We hate playing the guy he makes life tough. He’s one of the most talented players to ever play the game of doubles – his slinky lefty serve, his hands around the net, great return, great athlete and he’s still playing at age 43.” Bob Bryan told ATPWorldTour.com, “He will be in the Hall of Fame soon, it’s an incredible career. We congratulate him on all he’s done for the sport tennis and for doubles.”

“It’s amazing that he still plays at a really high level, and to get to 1,000 wins is something that very few guys will achieve in their careers,” Zimonjic told ATPWorldTour.com. “He’s won pretty much everything, a legend of our sport. He’s an example to the rest of us that if you stay professional, if you still enjoy it, if you love the game you can try to do the same. I’m really, really happy for him.”

In May last year, Nestor was sure that Mike Bryan (970 wins) or Bob Bryan (956) would achieve the match wins milestone before him. He never expected to play tour-level events for 28 years, and five years after indicating his desire to compete at the 2016 Rio Olympics, he keeps mixing it with the world’s best. Today, he assured himself of sporting immortality.

DANIEL NESTOR – BY THE NUMBERS (As of 11 January 2016)

MATCH WINS AND TITLES BY PARTNER

1,000 MATCH WINS CLUB

MOST DOUBLES MATCH WINS

MATCH WINS AND TITLES BY COUNTRY

DOUBLES MATCH WINS MILESTONES

* indicates went on to win the title

MATCH WINS BY YEAR

Statistical assistance courtesy of Graham Agars, Josh Rey and Greg Sharko and Josh Rey