RIO DE JANEIRO — With head down, Daniel Nestor walked slowly off Court 1 and didn’t look around. He didn’t take stock of all that was around him. He didn’t wave goodbye.
He just kept on walking at the Olympic Tennis Stadium.
Walking away from his final Summer Games.
This was his sixth time representing Canada in this cavalcade of sports called the Summer Olympics and at age 43, remarkable as that may be, there will be no more appearances as a player. If he is back in Tokyo four years from now, or eight years from now probably in Paris, it will be as a coach, a team leader: His favourite colours are red and white. That didn’t help him a lot in the bronze-medal match.
Nestor and his partner Vasek Pospisil had the opportunity to become the first male medal winners here for Canada on Friday night, but they were never in the match: They were oh so close to playing for gold after Thursday’s controversial loss. By Friday night, they were never close to bronze, losing 6-2, 6-4 to the Americans, Jack Sock and Steve Johnson. Whether Nestor and Pospisil want to admit it or not, they looked spent, a step slow, almost always a service game behind. The small quiet crowd, almost disinterested crowd, didn’t help.
“More emotional yesterday,” said the usually stone-faced Nestor. “A close match. A tough loss. Tough situations in that match. Today, it didn’t feel like we had that… They were just better.”
In modern times, tennis has been in the Olympics on eight different occasions, dating back to Seoul and 1988. Nestor has been here for six of the tournaments, playing singles and doubles in the early days, just doubles as the years moved on.
The big win came 16 years ago in Australia, with an upset of enormous proportions. Nestor and partner Sebastien Lareau upset the favourites from the host country in the gold-medal match. They are the only Canadians to medal in tennis. He will always have that: That was the Olympic highlight.
After a while, one Games blends into another and one tournament blends into another and even with time running out, there is no sense yet when the finish line will be. It isn’t far away. It’s just a matter of when.
“These are all fairly similar,” said Nestor, when asked to differentiate on his Olympic experiences. “The villages feel pretty similar. We’re always been taken care of well by the COC (Canadian Olympic Committee). And obviously, winning (in Sydney) brings back memories.”
His memories from here?
“A good experience overall.” But he can’t help but feel they left a little behind. A possible gold or silver medal was taken from him after a tough loss to Spain and Rafael Nadal. There was still an opportunity for a medal here. The American team, doubles players ranked behind the Canadians, didn’t play to the ratings Friday night. They all but dominated from start to finish. Nestor and Pospisil, whether they tried, couldn’t find what the women’s rugby team found between semifinal defeat and bronze-medal match.
This will bother them later, coming here, travelling this far, having a chance and then not living up to the opportunity. This won’t haunt Nestor because he’s not the haunted type.
But really, these are professional athletes who earn their living on the road and on the tour and come here Olympics after Olympics because they have a passion for both sport and country. We have seen wild emotions here from Nadal, from Novak Djokovic, from the kings of the tennis world.
Many play Davis Cup for the same reasons. It’s different. It’s challenging. And year after year, competition after competition, Nestor and whomever are ready to put on the red and white and play for Canada.
Nobody’s done that more Nestor. He has been Captain Canada, the tennis version, without the title for longer than anyone can remember. Penny Oleksiak was a few months old when he won his Olympic gold medal. She wasn’t born when he played his first Olympic tennis in Atlanta in 1996.
And Saturday they leave. There is no Olympic fun for the professionals here. There is a plane to catch and a tournament in Cincinnati to play. A U.S. Open just a few weeks away.
There is no time to hang out at beach volleyball, to down a Brazilian steak, to watch Andre De Grasse run preliminaries in the 100 metres, to take in some salsa music. No more time at the Olympics for Daniel Nestor.
ssimmons@postmedia.com
twitter.com/simmonssteve