Canadian tennis great Daniel Nestor takes batting practice at Rogers Centre
TORONTO — Less than a week removed from his final tennis match, Daniel Nestor was already trying his hand at baseball.
The 46-year-old Canadian tennis legend took batting practice on Friday afternoon at Rogers Centre ahead or the Toronto Blue Jays game with the Tampa Bay Rays. Nestor was given the opportunity through a reporter friend, who got permission from Blue Jays manager John Gibbons.
“I was hitting it well, I hit the bottom of the wall and the warning track area a couple of times,” said Nestor by the Blue Jays dugout. “I was hitting it well, but I feel like my best hits were straight away to centre field but there’s absolutely no way I’m hitting it out there so I tried to pull it a little bit.”
Nestor won gold in doubles tennis at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, and earned eight Grand Slam titles in men’s doubles over his 30-year professional career. His final match was on Sept. 15 when he represented Canada in doubles in a Davis Cup tie against the Netherlands in his hometown of Toronto. He played for Canada in the Davis Cup for 25 years.