Bjorkman-Mirnyi, Knowles & Nestor Reach Tennis Masters Cup Shanghai Final
© Getty Images By Sandra Harwitt
It took Jonas Bjorkman and Max Mirnyi (audio) three hours, 17 minutes to find their way into the Tennis Masters Cup Shanghai final on Saturday afternoon.
In a classic display of thrilling doubles, Bjorkman and Mirnyi finally prevailed over Martin Damm and Leander Paes 6-7 (4-7), 7-6 (7-5), 7-6 (7-5).
“It's not often you play matches with such a good quality that went almost like all four are playing their best tennis,” Bjorkman said: “I think it was good for us because we used to play even singles and doubles the same day. And this was a good workout both mentally and physically.”
The team of Mark Knowles and Daniel Nestor (audio) were already waiting in the wings to discover who they would play in the finals.
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Mark Knowles and Daniel Nestor reached their first season-ending championship final since 1998 on Saturday with a hard fought 4-6, 6-1, 6-3 semifinal victory over Paul Hanley and Kevin Ullyett.
Like Knowles and Nestor, Bjorkman and Mirnyi will be in the hunt for their first Tennis Masters Cup title on Sunday. Nevetheless, Bjorkman is no stranger to winning the year-end title since he did so in 1994 with Jan Appel.
And both teams have vastly improved this year over their 0-3 records in the 2005 Tennis Masters Cup Shanghai.
Damm and Paes came into the match with a 3-1 lead over Bjorkman and Mirnyi, including a victory in the recent U.S. Open final.
© Getty Images “This was in a way a different league because there was so much at stake to play for,” Mirnyi said. “Not only it's the tournament that we're playing at, but it's also sort of bitter feelings because we lost to them the finals of the US Open not too long ago.
“The longer the match went on, the more painful it would have been to lose the match, seems like.”
Bjorkman and Mirnyi had a match point on Paes’ serve in the 12th game, but Paes and Damm were able to save themselves from defeat temporarily.
The two teams exchanged mini-breaks early in the final tiebreaker, but the match went Bjorkman and Mirnyi’s way when Damm lost his serve in the next to last point.
When Knowles and Nestor stamped their names on a final berth, the borrowed a favorite celebration tactic from the Bryan brothers and performed what they later deemed was “a poor imitation” of the chest bump.
“We were pretty fired up to win there, so we showed a little emotion,” Nestor said.
Knowles and Nestor have performed well this week and were pleased to post their first victory in three matches played against Hanley and Ullyett on Saturday.
The two were definitely feeling confident about their chances to win the Tennis Masters Cup title for the first time on Sunday.
“We fought hard and we accomplished our goal of reaching the final here,” Nestor said. “We played a lot of matches in the fall, which is key. We continued our solid play from the first match here.
“We feel very good about our chances tomorrow.”
Knowles did not hesitate in agreeing with Nestor that they are hoping to win their sixth title of the year on Sunday.
“We’ve been playing great this fall,” Knowles said. “Our goal coming in was to have a strong performance here. We played well every match. We’re improving with each match. We played a good solid match today, and we put ourselves in contention tomorrow.”
The team of Knowles and Nestor hold a 4-3 career edge over Bjorkman and Mirnyi.
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