Nestor-Zimonjic Extend Rankings Lead; Will Meet Granollers-Robredo In Final

Daniel Nestor and Nenad Zimonjic can extend their lead to 830 points in the year-to-date 2009 ATP Doubles Team Rankings over American rivals Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan if they lift the BNP Paribas Masters title in Paris on Sunday.  Both teams will be battling to become the 2009 ATP World Tour Doubles Champions at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals in London from 22-29 November.

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Top seeds Nestor and Zimonjic added 240 points to their year-to-date ranking for 10,110 points overall — 430 points ahead of the Bryans (who are on 9,680 points) — after they defeated eighth seeds Frantisek Cermak and Michal Mertinak 6-7(2), 6-4, 10-5 in the semi-finals on Saturday, at the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 indoor hard-court tennis tournament.

Nestor and Zimonjic will challenge unseeded Spanish duo Marcel Granollers and Tommy Robredo in their 11th ATP World Tour final of the year on Sunday. 

Cermak and Mertinak, who qualified for the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals earlier this week, took advantage of the first set tie-break by taking a 3-0 and 6-1 lead with aggressive play at the net.  The Czech-Slovak pair won 80 per cent of service points and hit five aces to clinch the 42-minute first set.

In the fifth game of the second set, Nestor and Zimonjic converted their second break point opportunity to take a 3-2 lead that they maintained to level the scoreline after 78 minutes.  The duo saved all four break points they faced, won 74 per cent of service points and hit three aces. 

Nestor and Zimonjic immediately seized control of the Match tie-break, giving Cermak and Mertinak no chance of a comeback.  The Canadian-Serbian team, hoping to capture its ninth title of the year, improved to a 54-14 match record.

Granollers and Robredo advanced to their third ATP World Tour title of the year after beating all-Polish team and No. 7 seeds Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski 6-4, 6-2 in 50 minutes.

Granollers and Robredo, who beat fifth seeds Wesley Moodie and Dick Norman in the second round, didn’t face a break point as they won 75 per cent of service points and hit five aces.

The pair improved to 14-4 match record on the season, highlighted by one ATP World Tour title at the Brasil Open in Costa do Sauipe (d. Arnold Ker-Monaco) and one runner-up finish at last week’s Valencia Open 500 (l. to Cermak-Mertinak).

Fyrstenberg and Matkowski, who became the eighth and final Barclays ATP World Tour Finals doubles qualifiers on Friday, had their serves broken on three occasions at 3-3 in the first set, and in the first and seventh games of the second set.  The duo won just 12 of 48 points on return of serve.