Thursday, January 29, 2015

Daniel Nestor


Yesterday my CBC Radio sports guy said there were no longer any Canadians left in the Australian Open.


He was wrong.  Daniel Nestor had moved into the quarter finals of Mixed Doubles. (Now he is in the semi-finals.)  


I’m not a huge tennis fan. But like other Canadians my interest has been piqued over the last year by the rise to prominence of Thornhill’s Milos Raonic and Montreal’s Eugenie Bouchard.  Right now they are ranked 8th and 7th respectively.


But Nestor, at 42 years of age, has been playing tennis at a high level for more than two decades.


I wrote a little piece on Daniel Nestor in 2011 after he had captured 75th doubles title and the season ending Year End Championships.


Since then he has won 11 more titles and two more Grand Slams not to mention being a key player in returning Canada to tennis greatness with a berth in the David cup World semi-finals in 2013.

Ten Random Highlights and Context to Daniel Nestor’s Remarkable Career.

1.  “Is Bill Clinton for Real?”  asked Time Magazine the week Number 238 ranked Daniel Nestor knocked off world Number 1 Stephan Edberg 4-6, 6-3, 1-6, 6-3, 6-4 in January 1992 Davis Cup match in Vancouver.


2.  The year 1994 marked the first of Nestor’s doubles wins (this one with Bahamian Mark Knowles.)  His last win earlier this month with Rohan Bopanna marks the 22nd consecutive year and counting with at least one win.


3.  Nestor has won those 86 Career Men’s doubles championships with nine different partners from eight different countries.  Five times he triumphed with Montreal’s Sebastien Lareau including the 2000 Olympic gold medal.


4.  What can be said about Nestor’s longevity?  Ed Belfour was the NHL’s rookie of the year in 1991 when Nestor broke in as a pro.  Belfour retired in the 2004 season.  That year Nestor won Team of the Year honours with Knowles.  Twelve days after Nestor’s historic win over Edberg, the Atlanta Falcon’s traded twenty-two year old QB Brett Favre to Green Packers.  Favre had yet to complete a pass in the NFL but had been intercepted twice on four throws. 


5.  Nestor was born in 1972 (September 4th).  That is the same birth year as baseball’s Carlos Delgado (retired 2009) and NFLer Drew Bledsoe (retired 2006).  Hockey’s Jaromir Jagr, born in 1972, is the only active NHLer older than Nestor.


6.  But it is not just longevity Daniel has won the big tournaments as well.   Eight Men’s Grand Slams (French 4, Wimbledon 2, and  Australian and U.S. one each.1, with three different partners) and three mixed doubles grand slams (two Australian and one Wimbledon)  also with three different partners.


7.  He doesn’t always win.   But in addition to those 86 titles he has been a finalist 55 times.


8. Davis Cup began in 1900. It’s now the world’s largest annual international team competition in sport with 122 nations taking part in 2014. Nestor has excelled in these contests as well.  In singles, he has won of  fifteen of his thirty matches.  In doubles he is 31 wins against nine defeats.


9.  In spite of all of these achievements, Nestor has never won either the Lou Marsh trophy or the
CP  Athlete of the year.  While he and Lareau won the CP Team of the year in 2000 it would seem that more recognition is due.


10. Daniel created the Daniel Nestor Charity Event along with Karl Hale and Peter Henry in 2003. Karl and Daniel grew up together in North York, and decided  to give back to our community by organizing this annual event.  The event has raised over $1,000,000 for North York General Hospital.