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ROGERS CUP MEN


August 12, 2010


Daniel Nestor

Nenad Zimonjic


TORONTO, ONTARIO

NESTOR-ZIMONJIC/Knowles-Stepanek
4-6, 6-3, 10-6


THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Can you just talk about how it feels to get your first match under your belt this week, and Daniel, for you specifically, to play that first match here in front of the home crowd?
DANIEL NESTOR: Yeah, it was a nice match to win, obviously. We haven't played our best tennis since the French Open. You know, it's tough when you don't play matches. We've probably gone about two months now without winning too many matches, so it was nice to win this one, especially the way we did.
They were playing pretty well. They are a tough team. Knowles won Washington last week. He's playing very well, and Stepanek has always been a great player, singles and doubles.
It's nice to get through, and, you know, usually when we get through the first round we do pretty well, but I don't want to jinx myself. I feel pretty good about it.
NENAD ZIMONJIC: Like Daniel said, it was very difficult match. I didn't feel great starting the match, and it was good that Daniel took over in the beginning of the second set to give us a break. And after that, I thought we were a lot more solid throughout the match, and really happy that we had this kind of support.
I think tennis deserves it. There are also a lot of Serbian people here coming to support Novak, me, and Janko and Viktor. It's always nice to come back to Toronto, and look forward for our next match.

Q. It was one big surprise that Novak and Nadal, they were playing in doubles. What is your opinion about that?
DANIEL NESTOR: I thought, you know, it's nice to see them playing together, the top two players right now in the rankings.
You know, any time you get two really good singles players, usually that makes a good doubles team. But, you know, they lost to a very good young team, two Canadians that are dangerous, both serve well and play good doubles.
It was a little bit surprising, but at the same time, I know those guys well having played Davis Cup with them, and I know they're very capable, so it was not a shock by any means.

Q. It's been a while now since your change of partners, so was tonight just a routine match against Knowles, or were there still some emotions that are lingering when you face him?
DANIEL NESTOR: No, I mean, you get more used to it. We've played five or six times. It's not as big a deal. Last year when we played for the first time, it was a little bit weird out there, but, you know, I'm sure it's -- everyone knows it's in the past now, and we've moved on and we have both done well with our different partners. And, you know, as I said, it's time to move on and do the best we can.

Q. Do you have to adjust your game in any particular fashion, playing someone who knows how you work on court so well?
DANIEL NESTOR: A little bit. I mean, it works both ways. Obviously he knows my game well; I know his game well.
But I think, you know, we don't practice together anymore, really, so, you know, before, when we would practice together, I thought he returned my serve the best as anyone on tour because he got to see it every day. You know, that's not the case anymore, so it's -- it's totally different now.
I think, you know, we don't really see -- we practice sometimes together, two teams against each other. But, you know, if you don't see someone every day, you kind of forget their patterns and stuff.

Q. I want to ask you two things. When we interview a lot of the singles players, they look at the Rogers Cup as a warmup to the US Open. With doubles, it's a little more complicated because you're playing the ATP rules in doubles, and then, all of a sudden, when you're going to the US Open, you're going to have the ad scoring again and you will have to play out a full third set. If I'm correct, that's two out of three or three out of five. I'm not sure.
DANIEL NESTOR: Two out of three.

Q. Two out of three. So what kind of an adjustment, or how do you take from whatever you're going to do with the Rogers Cup and then make it into a situation where it could work for you and your partner at the US Open?
DANIEL NESTOR: I mean, for now it's just about matches. We're not too worried about the scoring. Obviously it's different. Any time you compress something, more luck's going to be involved.
We feel at the Slams with the regular scoring or the old scoring, the better team's usually going to win because it's a longer match, and you take the deuce/no ad out of it and the super tiebreaker out of it, you know, you have to really beat the other team.
I don't think it's a huge adjustment. We're happy to play that scoring in the biggest tournaments, and as you said, it's -- I feel like, you know, what I just said, we're happy to play that scoring and, you know, make the most of it.

End of FastScripts




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