THE CANADIAN PRESS ROTTERDAM, Netherlands -- Daniel Nestor of Toronto and Serbian partner Nenad Zimonjic advanced to their third final of the season by defeating Czech Tomas Berdych and Austrian Jurgen Melzer 6-3, 6-2 Saturday at the Rotterdam Open. The top-seeded duo will seek their first title of 2009 against second seeds Lukas Dlouhy and Leander Paes. "It's been a great week for us," said Nestor. "We've been playing solid. It's good to get back to a final, finally we would like to win one. ... "I think we're starting to show the potential that we know we have. We've just had some back luck this year but hopefully that's changing now." Top-seeded Rafael Nadal will play Andy Murray in the singles final after beating Gael Monfils 6-4, 6-4. Nadal broke Monfils in the fifth game of the second set and, despite the Frenchman's 10 aces, went on to earn his first two-set win this week. Second-seeded Briton Murray advanced with a 6-1, 6-2 win over Mario Ancic of Croatia earlier. The biggest disappointment of the year for Nestor and Zimojic was a second-round loss at the Australian Open to Poland's Lukasz Kubot and Oliver Marach of Austria. They've been putting that behind them this week. Zimonjic began and ended the 28-minute first set with solid service games, a break of Berdych making the early difference. But the Berdych-Melzer combination refused to roll over, with the Austrian saving a pair of break points in the third game to stay competitive. Zimonjic kept up the pressure in the second, serving out the decisive victory in 53 quick minutes as the team broke three times and saved the only break point they faced. "Nenad served great and really helped us take control and keep it," said Nestor. "After some close calls so far, we're really ready to win our first title this season." Nestor and Zimonjic won the doubles title at Wimbledon just months after they got together and ended 2009 with a victory at the Masters Cup in Shanghai. Dlouhy and Paes advanced with a 6-2, 2-6 (4) victory over No. 4 pair Julien Knowle and Andy Ram. Despite nursing a minor injury to his right foot, Murray dispatched two-time ABN Amro champion Ancic in just over an hour. He broke the Croat's serve authoritatively in the second game of the first set, after running the score to 0-40 and then held serve and broke Ancic again in the sixth game. Ancic played poorly in the second set and Murray broke him in the first game. Ancic had a single breakpoint in the second game, but Murray levelled the score and went on to win with an ace. The dejected Ancic then surrendered the following game as well, hitting a smash into the bottom of the net on the first of three break points against him. The most telling statistic of the match was points won on first return of serve -- 4 out of 26 for Ancic and 12 out of 22 for Murray. "I hope I end up facing Rafael Nadal in the final," Murray said. "Our matches are usually guaranteed to be a spectacle." -- With files from The Associated Press
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Nestor-Zimonjic into ABN final
THE CANADIAN PRESS ROTTERDAM, Netherlands -- Daniel Nestor of Toronto and Serbian partner Nenad Zimonjic advanced to their third final of the season by defeating Czech Tomas Berdych and Austrian Jurgen Melzer 6-3, 6-2 Saturday at the Rotterdam Open. The top-seeded duo will seek their first title of 2009 against second seeds Lukas Dlouhy and Leander Paes. "It's been a great week for us," said Nestor. "We've been playing solid. It's good to get back to a final, finally we would like to win one. ... "I think we're starting to show the potential that we know we have. We've just had some back luck this year but hopefully that's changing now." Top-seeded Rafael Nadal will play Andy Murray in the singles final after beating Gael Monfils 6-4, 6-4. Nadal broke Monfils in the fifth game of the second set and, despite the Frenchman's 10 aces, went on to earn his first two-set win this week. Second-seeded Briton Murray advanced with a 6-1, 6-2 win over Mario Ancic of Croatia earlier. The biggest disappointment of the year for Nestor and Zimojic was a second-round loss at the Australian Open to Poland's Lukasz Kubot and Oliver Marach of Austria. They've been putting that behind them this week. Zimonjic began and ended the 28-minute first set with solid service games, a break of Berdych making the early difference. But the Berdych-Melzer combination refused to roll over, with the Austrian saving a pair of break points in the third game to stay competitive. Zimonjic kept up the pressure in the second, serving out the decisive victory in 53 quick minutes as the team broke three times and saved the only break point they faced. "Nenad served great and really helped us take control and keep it," said Nestor. "After some close calls so far, we're really ready to win our first title this season." Nestor and Zimonjic won the doubles title at Wimbledon just months after they got together and ended 2009 with a victory at the Masters Cup in Shanghai. Dlouhy and Paes advanced with a 6-2, 2-6 (4) victory over No. 4 pair Julien Knowle and Andy Ram. Despite nursing a minor injury to his right foot, Murray dispatched two-time ABN Amro champion Ancic in just over an hour. He broke the Croat's serve authoritatively in the second game of the first set, after running the score to 0-40 and then held serve and broke Ancic again in the sixth game. Ancic played poorly in the second set and Murray broke him in the first game. Ancic had a single breakpoint in the second game, but Murray levelled the score and went on to win with an ace. The dejected Ancic then surrendered the following game as well, hitting a smash into the bottom of the net on the first of three break points against him. The most telling statistic of the match was points won on first return of serve -- 4 out of 26 for Ancic and 12 out of 22 for Murray. "I hope I end up facing Rafael Nadal in the final," Murray said. "Our matches are usually guaranteed to be a spectacle." -- With files from The Associated Press
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