ATHENS (CP) - Daniel Nestor took his first step toward defending his Olympic gold medal on Sunday, breezing past Karol Beck and Dominik Hrbaty of Slovakia with partner Frederic Niemeyer.
The Toronto left-hander, partnered with Niemeyer of Deauville, Que., now that Sebastien Lareau has retired, dispatched Karol Beck and Dominik Hrbaty of Slovakia 6-2, 7-5 in a match that took an hour 16 minutes.
Now the Canadians have to get past third-seeded Michael Llodra and Fabrice Santoro of France on Tuesday.
"I think we were favoured in this match and we had the nerves a little bit," Nestor said. "The next match we have nothing to lose, so now we can relax a little bit."
Nestor and his regular partner Mark Knowles of the Bahamas know Llodra and Santoro well. They lost to the French team in the quarter-finals of the 2004 French Open, the final of the 2003 Australian Open, and the semifinal of the 2003 Tennis Masters Cup Doubles.
Nestor was on the winning side against the Frenchmen in the quarters of the 2003 Cincinnati Tennis Masters event and the 2002 Australian Open final.
Llodra and Santoro advanced to play the Canadians after defeating French Open champions Xavier Malisse and Olivier Rochus of Belgium 6-3, 6-2 on Sunday night.
"It's obviously going to be a tough one, I think it's going to get tougher and tougher as we move on in the draw," Niemeyer said. "If we play solid like that, I think we could cause a few surprises."
In men's singles play Sunday, fourth-seeded Tim Henman of Britain lost 6-3, 6-3 loss to Jiri Novak of the Czech Republic, while No. 11 Juan Ignacio Chela of Argentina was upset 3-6, 7-6 (0), 6-4 by Max Mirnyi of Belarus.
Nestor and Niemeyer, who make up Canada's entire tennis team in Athens, haven't been shouldered by heavy expectations here. The pair only played together four times before the Olympics, going 4-0 in Davis Cup play.
Nestor is ranked sixth in the world while Niemeyer is a relative up-and-comer, ranked No. 424.
"The fact that we won already helps a little bit and maybe less expectation makes it easier," said Nestor, who has 34 career doubles titles to his credit and is coming off a Masters Series victory in Cincinnati.
"But we were nervous out there, we wanted to win, we didn't want to come all this way and lose. We're professional athletes, we want to win."
The Canadians got off to a quick start Sunday, needing only 25 minutes to win the first set, breaking Beck's serve twice.
"We could tell from the beginning he was a little bit tight coming out," said Nestor. "He wasn't getting any first serves in, he was throwing in short second serves, and we got that early break, and that was good."
Beck and Hrbaty put up a fight in the second set though, and the Canadians fell behind twice before pulling out the victory.
"We gelled well, Freddie played well, handled his nerves well," said Nestor. "We were up 6-2, then 3-1 cruising, and then I didn't play a great game with my serve and kind of let them back in it. But then we broke again and closed it up.
"It was a dogfight from 3-all."
In the tense second set, Niemeyer bounced around on the balls of his feet with nervous energy, and Nestor had to pull him aside a couple of times and calm him down.
"Playing with Daniel, he makes you play your best tennis, and I feel like I've got to raise my game so I don't look like too much of a bad player out there," Niemeyer said with a laugh.
Niemeyer didn't looked too shabby. Known for his powerful serve, the six-foot-two player had a pair of aces in the second set.
"Frederic played like one of the best doubles players in the world today," said coach Martin Laurendeau.
Niemeyer will play American Taylor Dent in singles Monday. While he came to Athens for doubles, he was added to the singles field after David Nalbandian of Argentina dropped out with an injury.
Nestor, 31, and Niemeyer, 27, come from opposite ends of the personality scale -Nestor is laidback to an extreme, while Niemeyer is more excitable -but both players say the combination works.
"I get him a little more energized when I see his energy is a little lower and he gets me down when he sees my energy is too high," said Niemeyer. "He's a lefty, I'm a righty, he's more of a finesse player, I'm more power. It's a good team."
The Canadians played in front of a small crowd on one of the secondary courts at the Olympic Tennis Centre. Some bikini-clad Canadian fans sunned themselves, and the wind kept the temperatures at a relatively comfortable 29 C. The wind kept knocking over the players' courtside umbrellas, which officials finally packed away in frustration.
Niemeyer and Nestor have been wearing the cooling vests provided to the Canadian athletes, and Niemeyer said they've been a huge help. They wear them for about 20 minutes before game time, and the vests slow the time it takes for their bodies to heat up.