Daniel Nestor continues to rack up doubles titles, adding No. 66 of his career on Sunday when he and partner Nenad Zimonjic defeated Simon Aspelin of Sweden and Paul Hanley of Australia 6-4, 4-6, [10-7]to win the ATP indoor event in Rotterdam.
Nestor and Zimonjic repeated as Rotterdam champions and recorded their 18th victory together.
For Nestor, his 66th career title (40 were with former partner Mark Knowles) puts him into a tie for fifth place with Peter Fleming, the long-time partner of the great John McEnroe, for the most won in the open era (since 1968).
In order, those above him, with their totals in brackets, are: 1. Todd Woodbridge (83) 2. John McEnroe (78), Tom Okker (78) 4. Mark Woodforde (67).
In the ATP's individual doubles rankings, Nestor and Zimonjic maintained their lead over their main rivals, American twins Bob and Mike Bryan, who were ousted in the second round in San Jose, Calif., last week.
With the rankings based on points accumulated over a rolling 12-month period, Nestor and Zimonjic are in good shape in the short term because a year ago they lost in the opening round of their next three events - Dubai, Indian Wells and Miami. So they should definitely be able to stretch their lead over the Bryans heading into April.
But they will then begin to 'defend' a boatload of points because they were even better than singles clay-court king Rafael Nadal on the European red clay last year. Where Nadal won titles in Monte Carlo, Barcelona and Rome, Nestor and Zimonjic went one better - winning those three as well as the new Masters 1000 event in Madrid.
Once the clay-court season begins, Nestor and Zimonjic will have 3,503 points to defend leading into to the French Open, while the Bryans will only have to defend 1,382.
But reaching the 2010 Australian Open final (losing to the Bryans), after being upset in the second round a year ago, gave them a boost. "A lot of pressure was taken off with the Aussie final," Nestor wrote in an email on Sunday about the points they will have to defend once the clay-court season begins. "We try not to focus on that stuff, just to put in the time on the practice court and it will carry over into our matches."
The Nestor-Zimonjic duo gets back into action next week in Dubai, and will do so with an 11,590 points to 10,480 points lead over Bob and Mike Bryan in the ATP rankings.
At the 2009 year-end ATP World Tour Finals in London, Nestor and Zimonjic needed only one more round-robin victory - or one more loss by the Bryans - to finish the season at No. 1 instead of No. 2 behind the Americans.
In 2010, they are off to a solid start, and the 37-year-old Nestor, who is meticulous about maintaining his fitness, is well on his way to establishing new records. Two more titles and he will be ahead of Woodforde and into fourth place alone on the doubles list - just a challenging 10 behind McEnroe and Okker and their second-place total of 78.
NOTES: Newly-retired Marat Safin plans to spend a few days at the Vancouver Olympic Games. Safin, who turned 30 last month and is slated to play some senior tour events this year, recently became a member of the Russian Olympic Committee.
Maria Sharapova returns to action this week as the top seed at the $220,000 (US) indoor event in Memphis. Sharapova, ranked No. 16, has not played since being upset by fellow-Russian Maria Kirilenko in the opening round of the Australian Open on January 18.