PARIS - Canadian Daniel Nestor and partner Max Mirnyi reached the quarter-finals of the French Open on Sunday with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over German Christopher Kas and Alexander Peya of Austria.
The third-round win in 76 minutes keeps second-seeded Nestor on course to repeat the Roland Garros trophy he lifted a year ago on the clay with ex-partner Nenad Zimonjic. The 38-year-old Toronto native teamed with Mirnyi from Belarus at the start of the season.
The pair went up a break in each set to take command and lost their own serve once, with Mirnyi serving out the win on the first of two match points.
Kas and Peya, who reached the final in Delray Beach, Florida, in February, are an occasional pairing and could not match the well-honed skills of regular partners Nestor and Mirnyi.
The Canadian won his 800th career match in the previous round and is now working on reaching 900, and possibly beyond.
He praised his new combination after the straight-forward win which put the team into a quarter-final against the winners from Frenchmen Julien Benneteau and Nicolas Mahut and Swede Robert Lindstedt and Romanian Horia Tecau, the ninth seeds.
