2 Canadian teams advance in men’s doubles at Wimbledon

Two Canadian doubles teams advanced on Friday at Wimbledon, with veteran Daniel Nestor and Swedish partner Robert Lindstedt reaching the third round.

In women’s singles, Eugenie Bouchard, from Montreal, was bidding to reach the third round as she played Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain.

The sixth-seeded Nestor and Lindstedt defeated Argentines Eduardo Schwank and Horacio Zeballos 6-1, 7-5, 6-3 and will next face the winner from a match between ninth-seeded Britons Colin Fleming and Jonathan Marray and Czech Frantisek Cermak and Slovak Michael Mertinak.

There was also first-round success for Canadians Jesse Levine and Vasek Pospisil as that unseeded combination defeated Lukas Dlouhy of the Czech Republic and American Rajeev Ram, 6-2, 6-4, 6-1.

The opening match for Levine, from Ottawa, and Vancouver’s Pospisil was postponed by rain on Thursday evening.

The pair were teaming up for the first time since April, when they reached the semi-finals of a Challenger event in Savannah, Ga.

Levine and Pospisil will next take on American Nicolas Monroe and German Simon Stadler.

Nestor, 40, from Toronto, won the title at the All England Club in 2008 and 2009 with former partner Nenad Zimonjic of Serbia and played the 2002 final with Mark Knowles of the Bahamas. He and Max Mirnyi of Belarus exited in the second round in 2012.

Nestor and Lindstedt made sure they avoided the long match they played in the first round this week as morning rain gave way to dry weather and faint sunshine.

The seeds got on top of their opponent as they quickly won the first two sets, with Nestor guiding his partner to a 4-1 lead in the third at the only grand slam where doubles is played in best-of-five-sets.

The Argentines earned a late break of Lindstedt stay in contention 2-5 and saved a match point on their serve a game later to hold for 3-5.

But it was all over a game later as Nestor pounded down a smash to earn three match points, with Lindstedt applying the finishing touch seconds later in the 87-minute rout.

The winners ended with three aces and five breaks of serve as they try to rescue a grass season now standing at 2-2.

Top Stories

Top Stories

Most Watched Today