3fees
G.O.A.T.
Top seeds Daniel Nestor and Leander Paes won their first ATP World Tour team title on Saturday as they defeated Treat Huey and Dominic Inglot 7-6(10), 7-5 in the Winston-Salem Open final.
Both aged 40, Nestor and Paes were playing together for just the second time in their careers. Their debut came 19 years ago at The Queen’s Club, where they lost in the first round. They are two of the most successful doubles players of all time, with Nestor amassing 81 tour-level titles and Paes 52.
Nestor and Paes edged their unseeded opponents in one hour and 33 minutes, having been thwarted on 10 of their 11 break point chances. They lost just one set all week. Their quarter-final win over Paul Hanley and John Peers saw Nestor become the first doubles player to reach the 900 match wins milestone (902-358 match record).
"It was really tough,” said Nestor. “The first set was obviously key, everyone had chances. We came through in the end. Anytime you win a set like that, it's a huge boost. We carried it over to the second [set]. I thought we were better in the second, but they hung on. Finally we got them at the end."
Paes clinched his first title of the season and improved to a 52-36 finals record. It was also the first title of the season for Nestor, who was runner-up earlier in the year at the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell with Robert Lindstedt.
"There are two things that really stand out for me this week,” said Paes. “One was to get Danny to his 900th win. That's a phenomenal career that he's had. It was a real honour to be on the court with him, getting him to that spot.
"The second thing that stood out was playing together on the court. We wanted to get a few matches in. We wanted to see how we combine on the court. Through the whole week, we played some really tough opponents and getting to win the tournament with someone who's a legend is really something special."
Huey and Inglot dropped to a 1-4 finals record together. Their lone title came at last year’s Citi Open in Washington (d. Anderson/Querrey). It was their second runner-up showing of the season, having lost to Andre Begemann and Martin Emmrich in the Power Horse Cup final in Dusseldorf.
902 wins on atp world tour and going stong,,,
