December 01, 2009

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It was a battle to the finish for a second year in a row, but this time Toronto’s Daniel Nestor narrowly missed out on the year-end No. 1 position and will finish the season as the No. 2 team on the ATP World Tour with Serbian partner Nenad Zimonjic.

Despite a slightly disappointing end to the year at the ATP World Tour Finals in London, Nestor strung together what could arguably be considered the best season of his career. He and Zimonjic captured nine titles, the most he’s ever won in a single year. Five of those nine titles were Masters 1000 events at Monte Carlo, Rome, Madrid, Cincinnati, and Paris.

The duo also successfully defended their Wimbledon championship defeating Americans Bob and Mike Bryan in the final, one of five victories over their rivals through the course of the season. Nestor and Zimonjic captured additional trophies at Basel, Rotterdam and Barcelona, reached the final at Doha and Sydney and were semifinalists at Roland Garros.

With their ninth tournament win in Paris, Nestor became the first Canadian in history to surpass the $1 million mark in official prize money in one season and also the first player in singles or doubles to capture all nine Masters Series events. They finished the season with a 58-16 win-loss record bringing Nestor’s career total to 723-280. He also leads all active players with 64 career titles.

At the year-end championships in London, Nestor and Zimonjic entered the week with an 830 point lead over the Bryan brothers. However, things did not go well for the top team as they dropped two of their three round robin matches and failed to reach the semifinals. The Bryans went on to win the tournament and steal away the title of 2009 ATP World Tour Doubles Champions by a margin of less than 100 ranking points.

"For sure it's disappointing," said Nestor. "We had high hopes coming in here. We were playing well and we were the No. 1 team. But that's part of life. We had a lot of success this year. Hopefully we can continue like this next year and have a similar year again."

On Monday, Nestor was awarded the Tennis Canada Excellence Awards for Male Player of the Year for the seventh time and Male Doubles Player of the Year for the eighth consecutive year.