PARIS — Canadian Daniel Nestor has advanced to his third French Open doubles final in four years.
The 37-year-old Toronto left-hander teamed with Serbian partner Nenad Zimonjic to defeat South African Wesley Moodie and Belgian Dick Norman 6-0, 6-3 in Thursday’s semifinal.
The second-seeded duo will face No. 3 seeds Lukas Dlouhy of the Czech Republic and Leander Paes of India in Saturday’s final. They defeated Austrian Julian Knowle and Israeli Andy Ram 6-4, 6-2 in the other semi.
It will be the 14th career Grand Slam final for Nestor, who has won a total of five titles, three with previous partner Mark Knowles and two with Zimonjic.
“I’m excited,” said Nestor. “My record is not great in (Grand Slam) finals so I’d like to improve on that. This is an opportunity. You appreciate them as you get older. We’ll try to play our best.”
Nestor last won the doubles title at Roland Garros in 2007, teaming with Knowles to beat Dlouhy and partner Pavel Vizner. He and Zimonjic were runners-up in 2008 and lost to Dlouhy and Paes in the semifinals last year.
“Nenad and I have had a lot of success on clay,” said Nestor. “It will be nice to play Dlouhy and Paes in the final. When we lost to them in the semis, we didn’t play great.”
Dlouhy and Paes also won the U.S. Open crown last year.
“They are playing well and they will trying to defend their title,” said Nestor, who has won four titles and US$439,166 this season. “They won two Slams last year so they know how to play well at the big events.”
It’s the second straight Grand Slam final for Nestor and Zimonjic, who also advanced to the Australian Open championship but lost to American rivals Bob and Mike Bryan.
Nestor and Zimonjic needed only 56 minutes to advance Thursday. They fired five aces and successfully converted four of seven break chances en route to the victory.
“We got some free points today and Moodie and Norman didn’t serve as well as they have, for whatever reason,” Nestor said.
Nestor said that the quick win will not hurt them in the final.
“I don’t think it matters,” said Nestor. “We’ve played a lot of tough matches already. We’re match-tough and ready for anything.”