Knowles & Nestor Eye Fairytale Ending
© Getty Images Playing the final tournament of their celebrated partnership, Mark Knowles and Daniel Nestor advanced to the Tennis Masters Cup final after beating Paul Hanley and Kevin Ullyett in the Shanghai semifinals for the second consecutive year. After squandering three match points in the second-set tie-break, Knowles and Nestor took charge early in the match tie-break to win 6-4, 6-7(8), 10-5.
In the final they will play US Open champions Simon Aspelin and Julian Knowle, who advanced to their first final since Flushing Meadows with a 6-4, 6-4 win over veteran duo Martin Damm and Leander Paes.
Knowles and Nestor have played with different players since ending their longterm partnership after the US Open. Soon after announcing their decision to split earlier in the year, Knowles and Nestor won Roland Garros, leaving Wimbledon as the only Grand Slam title they have not won. Their success in Paris prompted the players to delay their split until after Flushing Meadows, when Nestor began teaming with Nenad Zimonjic and Knowles played with a variety of partners after his planned partnership with Mahesh Bhupathi was derailed by injury.
Winning their first Tennis Masters Cup title in their final match together would leave little unfinished business for one of the greatest teams of the past decade. "We'll try to go out with a bang," Knowles said. "It would be a great way to finish the year... We like the way we're playing. We played a great match today. We look to play even better in the final. We know we're going to have to play a great match to win the title."
Nestor said: "It would be a nice way to end this year because we've had some good moments and we've never won this tournament before. I think it would be pretty fitting. We've lost two finals here. We lost two finals at the French before we won. Hopefully that's a good omen."
Interestingly, both players spoke only of winning the title as being a fitting end to the year. For whatever reason, neither player could bring himself to utter the phrase "end of the partnership".
Nestor added: "I think we've dealt with adversity really well this week. Had some not so good moments of play, especially me on my serve. But I bounced back. Mark's bounced back with me. I think we're playing really solid for the most part."
© Getty Images In their straight-sets win over Damm and Paes, Aspelin and Knowle fought off all six break points they faced, while breaking Paes in the third game of the first set and Paes again in the seventh game of the second set to go ahead 4-3.
Knowle found himself in trouble in the next game at 30/40. But the left-hander served a sliding ace past Damm and then drew a forehand error from Paes with another big first serve on the deciding point. "Today we managed to win the big points and I thought this was our best performance of the week," Knowle said.
"It's great [to make the Masters Cup final] considering we only started playing together in April. Just making it here is amazing. If someone told me half a year ago we'd be in the Masters final I would have said they were crazy. It's been a dream season for me. It's a great end to the best season of my life."
Looking ahead to the final, Knowle said: "They beat us in the round-robin and they are playing well, but it's our first time in the Masters so we have nothing to lose. It's been a great week no matter what happens in the final."
Aspelin said: "It feels great to finish off a long season with a great tournament. It's my first Masters Cup final so I rank this result extremely high. Both Julian and I thought we would have done better in the indoor season but having reached the semifinals in Paris and now the final here has made up for that."
Day 6 Doubles: Knowles & Nestor Qualify Despite Tough Loss
Day 5 Doubles: Bjorkman & Mirnyi Bow Out With Pride
Day 4 Doubles: Czechs Keep Semifinal Hopes Alive
Day 3 Doubles: Defending Champs Slip to 0-2
Day 2 Doubles: Knowles & Nestor Save 2 Match Points
Day 1 Doubles: Erlich & Ram Save Match Point
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