2007 Roland Garros
Paris, France


 

2007 ROLAND GARROS

DAY 14 MEN’S NOTES

Saturday 9 June 2007

Doubles Final

NO. 6 MARK KNOWLES (BAH)/DANIEL NESTOR (CAN)

v

NO. 9 LUKAS DLOUHY/PAVEL VIZNER (CZE)

Head-to-head: Knowles/Nestor lead 1-0       

2006     Barcelona                      Clay (O)            SF        Knowles/Nestor             61 16 [10-6]

The pairs have met just once previously, Knowles and Nestor edging that meeting on a match tiebreak. Knowles and Nestor, in their penultimate Grand Slam together (see note for more details), are bidding for a third Grand Slam title against the Czechs, who are appearing in their first Grand Slam doubles final and bidding to be the first all-Czech pairing in history to win a men’s Grand Slam title.

Nestor was born in Serbia. The nation is having a very successful Roland Garros and, at the time of writing, there could be Serbian-born players in four of the five senior finals this year. Nenad Zimonjic lost the mixed doubles title (with Katarina Srebotnik) on Thursday, Ana Ivanovic will face Justine Henin in Saturday’s women’s singles final and Novak Djokovic takes on defending champ Rafael Nadal in Friday’s men’s singles semifinals.

Road to the Final

LUKAS DLOUHY/PAVEL VIZNER

·         In their sixth major together, Dlouhy and Vizner have reached the first Grand Slam final as a pair.

·         Having teamed up for the first time in 2006, their previous best Grand Slam performance as a team was reaching the Roland Garros semifinals last year, losing to eventual champions Jonas Bjorkman/Max Mirnyi 63 63.

·         Vizner is contesting his second Roland Garros men’s doubles final, having also reached the final in 2001, with fellow Czech Petr Pala, losing to Mahesh Bhupathi/Leander Paes 76 63.

·         Away from Roland Garros, Dlouhy and Vizner have only once advanced beyond the second round in four other majors, advancing to the quarterfinals at 2006 Wimbledon.

·         Overall this is Dlouhy’s seventh Grand Slam men’s doubles appearance. In addition to his six events with Vizner, he also played 2005 Wimbledon with another Czech David Skoch, where they entered the draw as lucky losers, losing to Olympic champions Fernando Gonzalez/Nicolas Massu 36 64 76 63.

·         Vizner is contesting his 12^th consecutive Roland Garros men’s doubles event and his 43^rd Grand Slam men’s doubles event overall. His best performance away from Roland Garros was reaching the semifinals at 1997 Wimbledon with Martin Damm (l. Jacco Eltingh/Paul Haarhuis 62 62 64).

·         No all-Czech team has ever won a Grand Slam title. Dlouhy/Vizner are only the sixth all-Czech pairing to contest a Grand Slam doubles final in the Open Era, and the third to do so at Roland Garros.

All-Czech pairings in Grand Slam finals

·         At the 2006 US Open, Martin Damm became the first Czech player to win a Grand Slam men’s doubles title since 1998. Damm also became the first Czech Grand Slam champion in any senior event since 2001 Wimbledon.

·         The last Czech player to win the men’s doubles title at Roland Garros was Daniel Vacek, who partnered Yevgeny Kafelnikov to the title here in 1996 and 1997. The only other Czech player to win the men’s doubles title here in the Open Era was Tomas Smid (with John Fitzgerald) in 1986.

·         In total, six Czech men have won Grand Slam men’s doubles titles in the Open Era: Tomas Smid (1984 US Open, 1986 Roland Garros), Petr Korda (1996 Australian Open), Daniel Vacek (1996, 1997 Roland Garros, 1997 US Open) Cyril Suk (1998 US Open), and Martin Damm (2006 US Open).

·         In their 27^th tournament together, Dlouhy and Vizner are bidding for their fourth career title as a team, having won at Costa do Sauipe for the last two years and also at 2006 Estoril, all on clay.

·         In addition to his three titles with Dlouhy, Vizner has won ten other titles with seven different partners.

·         Winning at Costa do Sauipe was the highlight of Dlouhy and Vizner’s year before coming here. They also reached the final at Acapulco (l. Pototo Starace/Martin Vassallo Arguello 60 62) and semifinals at Buenos Aires (l. Albert Montanes/Ruben Ramirez-Hidalgo 62 62) in a very successful Latin American swing.

·         Dlouhy and Vizner did not played together between AMS Miami and Roland Garros. Dlouhy missed the European clay court circuit and played on the challenger circuit while Vizner lost his opening match at all four clay court events he played.

·         Dlouhy and Vizner made their Davis Cup debut for Czech Republic in the 2007 World Group first round tie against USA in Ostrava in February. They lost to Bob and Mike Bryan 64 64 64, USA going on to win 4-1 and advance to the quarterfinals. (Czech Republic now faces Switzerland at home in September’s World Group Play-offs.)

·         Dlouhy participated in the men’s singles here, losing in the first round to No. 28 seed Philipp Kohlschreiber 62 36 75 46 1715, the final set equalling the longest ever at Roland Garros. He reached the third round here last year, his best singles result to date in a Grand Slam. He is currently ranked No. 96 in singles, and reached a career-high of No. 73 in April 2006.

·         Vizner also took part in the mixed doubles event at Roland Garros, partnering Janette Husarova, and reaching the second round before losing to No. 8 seeds Nathalie Dechy and Andy Ram 46 63 [10-7]. Vizner has not played singles at any level since August 1995.

·         Vizner was Dlouhy’s coach from December 2005 to May 2007; they stopped working together after AMS Hamburg. Dlouhy is now coached by David Prinosil.

MARK KNOWLES/DANIEL NESTOR

·         Knowles and Nestor are through to their third Roland Garros doubles final, and are bidding to win their first Roland Garros doubles title.

·         This is Knowles and Nestor’s ninth Grand Slam doubles final overall, and they are bidding to win their third Grand Slam title in a third different major, having reached doubles finals at all four Slams. They won the 2002 Australian Open doubles title, and the 2004 US Open doubles title in their last appearance in a Grand Slam final.

Knowles/Nestor in Grand Slam finals

·         This is Knowles and Nestor’s tenth appearance together at Roland Garros. They lost in the second round here last year, as No. 3 seeds falling to Dominik Hrbaty/Michal Mertinak 64 63.

·         Nestor has competed in Grand Slam doubles events with six other partners, and Knowles has played majors with 12 other partners, but neither man has reached a Grand Slam doubles final with any other their other partners. They first teamed up for a major at the 1995 Australian Open, where they reached the final (see above).

·         Knowles and Nestor are going to split up after Wimbledon; Nestor, who was born in Belgrade, is going to team up with Serbian Nenad Zimonjic, who is ending his partnership with Fabrice Santoro.

·         Knowles and Nestor started playing together nearly 13 years ago, in September 1994. They won the first tournament they played together, at Bogota, defeating Luke and Murphy Jensen 64 76 in the final. 2007 Roland Garros is their 39^th Grand Slam tournament as a team.

·         Knowles and Nestor are today bidding to win their first title of the year. This is their fourth appearance in a final in 2007.

Knowles/Nestor in 2007 finals

·         Knowles and Nestor are bidding to win their first doubles title since last October, when they lifted the trophy at Basle after defeating Mariusz Fyrstenberg/Marcin Matkowski 46 64 [10-8] in the final. That was Knowles’s 44^th career doubles title, and Nestor’s 46^th.

·         Knowles and Nestor’s best result in five clay court tournaments this season ahead of Roland Garros was reaching the final at Houston as detailed above. Their best performance on European clay was advancing to the semifinals at AMS Rome, losing to the Bryans 64 57 [10-3].

·         Nestor also owns a Grand Slam mixed doubles title, teaming with Elena Likovtseva to win this year’s Australian Open (d. Max Mirnyi/Viktoria Azarenka 64 64 in the final). They lost in the first round of the 2007 Roland Garros mixed event, while Knowles reached the semifinals with Zi Yan.

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