Bank Austria Tennis Trophy; Nenad Zimonjic and Daniel Nestor win Vienna title
World number two doubles duo of Nenad Zimonjic and Daniel Nestor got the better of fourth seed Marcin Matkowski and Mariusz Fyrstenberg in a three-setter final clash to end their five month title drought at the Bank Austria Tennis Trophy on Sunday. The final
match score was 7-5, 3-6, 10-5.
After capturing a total of five tour level trophies in the opening five months of the year, including win at the French Open, the Serbian-Canadian pair had failed to reach another ATP World Tour title battle until their run in Vienna.
“It is a great feeling. Hopefully we can carry it through to the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals, where we had a not-so-great performance last year. It is great to be back in the winners’ circle. We played really well, beat one of the hottest teams on tour,
so it is a good feeling,” said Nestor after the match on Sunday.
Nestor and Zimonjic battled hard to win their 22nd tour level crown together as they didn’t start off the match strongly. They, however, did well to seal the first set in the end, but were broken during the sixth game of the following set as Matkowski
and Fyrstenberg hit back to tie the scores.
Zimonjic and Nestor made a strong start to the match tie-break, though, immediately taking a lead of 6-3 and from there did not falter as they clinched win in a time period of seventy seven minutes.
“Definitely more than happy. The way it has been going since Roland Garros, it was not what we had expected. Before coming to this tournament I had a lot of problems with my back. It was a question if I could play. I would like to thank our physio, Clay
Sniteman, for helping me to be able to play and to compete,” explained Zimonjic after the match.
While commenting on the overall championship, he added that his experience right from the start of the competition has been great and it is always fun to win the tournament. A title victory will definitely help them defending their crown in Basel and Paris.
It was the second trophy in Vienna for both Zimonjic and Nestor. The 38-year-old Nestor had previously triumphed with former long-time partner Mark Knowles back in 2005, while the 34-year-old Zimonjic had won the title along with Yevgeny Kafelnikov back
in 2000.
The win also took Nestor to his 70th tour-level crown overall. He is the fifth contender in the Open Era to have reached the milestone and as a result improved his final record to 70-45 on the tour.
Both of them announced earlier this month that this will be their last year together and will contest in their final championship as a pair at the season ending Barclays ATP World Tour Finals in London, which is set to start in a couple of days. They are
one of the four teams to have successfully qualified for the Barclays.
Fyrstenberg and Matkowski, on the other hand, are also hoping to join Nestor and Zimonjic at the year finale, to be contested at The O2 in London, and are currently fourth in the year-to-date ATP Doubles Rankings, next in line to grab one of the four remaining
positions.
The Polish duo as a result of their final loss has dropped down to a mark of 1-4 in the ATP World Tour finals this year. They captured their eleventh career crown in Eastbourne back in June and have now made it into the final at four successive championships,
following runner-up appearances earlier this month at Malaysian Open, China Open and Shanghai Rolex in China.
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