Canada's Daniel Nestor, left, and Serbia's Nenad Zimonjic kiss the cup after defeating Czech Republic's Lukas Dlouhy and India's Leander Paes in the men's doubles final match for the French Open tennis tournament at the Roland Garros stadium in Paris, Saturday, June 5, 2010.(AP Photo/Lionel Cironneau)Lionel Cironneau/The Associated Press
Daniel Nestor's sixth Grand Slam doubles title will long be remembered in the family photo album.
After he and partner Nenad Zimonjic, seeded No. 2, defeated the No. 3 seeds, Lukas Dlouhy of the Czech Republic and Leander Paes of India, 7-5, 6-2 in the final and received their French Open trophies at the presentation ceremony, both players had their children down on court. Tiana Nestor, almost 18 months, as well as Zimonjic's twins, Luna and Leon, 18 months, had their pictures taken with their papas and then did a little frolicking on the red clay court.
The match was as tight as could be in the first set, with Zimonjic having to survive six deuces and one break point in the opening game of the match. Dlouhy and Paes were the better team until Paes served at 5-5.
After 15-all in that game, Zimonjic drilled a shot at Paes who missed a volley, Nestor hit an artful backhand angle past Paes and then Dlouhy hit a volley out and the Canadian-Serbian duo had the vital break. Nestor served out to love in the next game and the heart of the match was effectively over.
Dlouhy was broken in the first game of the second set and again in the fifth to give Nestor and Zimonjic a commanding 5-1 lead.
The title was Nestor and Zimonjic's third Grand Slam together. They have won Wimbledon the past two years after starting to play full-time together in the fall of 2007.
It brings Nestor's Grand Slam total to six, and Zimonjic's to three. Nestor, who was playing in his fifth French Open final, also won the title in Paris with former partner Mark Knowles of the Bahamas in 2007.
"I think it's nice we won here," Nestor said. "We've knocked on the door a couple times, final and semis last year. It was a pretty bitter loss to these guys (Dlouhy and Paes in 2009) that we beat today. It was nice to avenge that."
Nestor and Zimonjic were down 2-4 in the third set of their very first match against Ross Hutchins of Britain and Jordan Kerr of Australia before winning 7-6(5), 4-6, 7-6(3). In the third round, they struggled with Guillaume Rufin and Alexandre Sidorenko of France before prevailing 6-7(2), 6-4, 6-3.
"I mean, especially when you're at the top, teams are gunning for you," Nestor said. "They're playing their best against you. Those guys played well against us. We did a good job this whole tournament dealing with adversity. There were tough moments in a lot of matches. You know, it pays off in the end. But I don't think we played as well as we did in other Slams we won."
With their success in Paris, Nestor and Zimonjic will also return to the No. 1 spot in the ATP's individual doubles rankings, replacing American twins Bob and Mike Bryan.
After the match, Zimonjic, who was the only one of the four players on the court to not have won a Roland Garros doubles title, said during the presentation ceremony, "Our coach John Farrington (from the Bahamas) would say every morning, 'how are you?' and I would say 'good' and he would say 'phenomenal.' I really do feel phenomenal now. To my partner Daniel, you've been playing great over the years and won so many tournaments [69] We started to play together to try to win as many Grand Slam tournaments as we can. I think we're doing terrific even though we have some tough conversations at tough times."
Nestor later said about their sometimes tempestuous relationship, "we're always speaking our minds. It's better to get it off your chest if you have a disagreement. We do fight about three times a week - and it works for us."
For Zimonjic, who turned 34 on Friday, it was two titles in two days. He won the mixed doubles Friday with Katarina Srebotnik of Slovenia.
Nestor played the mixed doubles with Patty Schnyder of Switzerland, losing in the first round after his planned partnership with Daniela Hantuchova fell through. At Wimbledon in two weeks, he will be playing with the feisty Bethanie Mattek-Sands of the United States.
Zimonjic now has four mixed doubles titles to one for Nestor.
The pair will leave with the families on Sunday morning, taking the Eurostar to London where they will play the grass-court Queen's Club event next week.
Two weeks later, they will play Wimbledon and attempt to become the first team to win three titles in a row since Jonas Bjorkman and Todd Woodbridge from 2002 to 2004
About their kids being lowered from the seats to the court for the post-victory pictures, Nestor said it was, "spontaneous. We don't plan that until it's over with. It was nice to have them on the court. They probably won't remember it, but..."