Nestor earns 89th career doubles title with victory at Nottingham

NOTTINGHAM, England – Canada’s Daniel Nestor and Dominic Inglot of Britain defeated Croatia’s Ivan Dodig and Brazil’s Marcelo Melo 7-5, 7-6 (4) to win the Aegon Open Nottingham men’s doubles title Saturday.

It was the 89th career doubles title for Nestor and his first of the season. He has won at least one Tour-level doubles title each year since 1994.

Nestor and Inglot, the No. 2 seeds, had a chance to serve out for the match but their top-seeded opponents were able to break. After a rain delay, Nestor and Inglot sealed the victory by controlling the tiebreaker.

“I think the rain actually helped us refocus,” Nestor said. “We were still in a good situation and we came back out pretty strongly. Our opponents played well to get a second life. It was high-quality tennis. There is so little margin for error in the doubles game right now. Every match can be 50-50, but you can also beat anyone as well.”

It was Inglot’s fifth career title.

In singles play, Steve Johnson of the United States won his first ATP title with a 7-6 (5), 7-5 victory over Pablo Cuevas in the final of the grass-court event.

The 26-year-old Californian capitalized on two of his three break chances, all of which came in the second set after the first set went with serve. Johnson broke for 2-1, but his Uruguayan opponent broke back for 4-4 and held on until the 11th game before being broken a second time.

Johnson, seeded sixth, sealed the victory in the following game on his second match point.

The tournament in central England is a warmup for Wimbledon, where Johnson opens against Malek Jaziri of Tunisia on Monday. Nestor and Inglot will be the ninth-seeded duo at the Grand Slam event.

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With files from The Canadian Press.