Music: {allcanada} TORONTO'S NESTOR AND MIRNYI REACH SONY ERICSSON OPEN FINAL

Thursday, March 31, 2011

{allcanada} TORONTO'S NESTOR AND MIRNYI REACH SONY ERICSSON OPEN FINAL

KEY BISCAYNE, Fla. -- Toronto's Daniel Nestor and Belarus partner Max Mirnyi beat Wimbledon champion Philipp Petzschner of Germany and Austrian Jurgen Melzer 6-4, 6-1 to reach the final of the Sony Ericsson Open on Thursday.

Nestor and Mirnyi will play for the trophy Saturday against Indian third-seeds Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes, who beat the Canadian's former partner Nenad Zimonjic and Austria's Olivier Marach in three sets Wednesday.

"We've been playing better and better after a tight win over Feliciano Lopez and Fernando Verdaso," said Nestor. "Since then we found a groove and we've played well as a team."

The victory in 61 minutes lifted Nestor to 11-4 overall in Key Biscayne, where he won the trophy in 2002 with Mark Knowles.

The final will be a rematch of the last Australian Open semifinal where Nestor and Mirnyi lost to the pair from India.

"They beat us in the Australian semis and it's good to see them back together and playing great," said Nestor. "We share a coach, Scott Davidoff coaches everyone but Paes, so we wont be getting a game plan."

Nestor's second-seeded team, who saved all six break points they faced against Petzschner and Melzer, broke to win the opening set in 40 minutes and dominated in a quick second set.

"Both teams had chances on the other's serve, we were fortunate to pull through a few of those finally," said Nestor. "We got ahead early in the second set ... they may have already been thinking about the clay court season."

The 38-year-old Nestor leads the ATP with 72 doubles titles, including Memphis in February with Mirnyi six weeks after beginning their partnership.