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.
After retiring, Nestor mentioned that he would like to work with Tennis Canada in another capacity. On Friday he said the national governing body was in no danger of losing him to Baseball Canada.
"I don't think they really want me, but I'm about to win my fantasy pool," said Nestor, who made sure to point out that American John Isner, ranked No. 10 on the ATP Tour's singles rankings, was in ninth or 10th in their league. "I know my stuff but I don't think I'd be very valuable to Baseball Canada, unfortunately."
A lifelong baseball fan, Nestor grew up supporting the Montreal Expos until the team moved to Washington in 2005. He then jumped ship to being a Blue Jays fan during their post-season runs in 2015 and 2016.
Nestor would love to see Major League Baseball return to Montreal and said he'd switch his allegiance back to that club, whatever name it might take.
"I'd love that, I'd probably get behind them," said Nestor. "It would bring back a lot of fond memories. I don't know if I skipped school early to see Game 5 against the Dodgers (in the 1981 National League Championship Series), it was an afternoon game, I remember that.
"Black Monday. It was pretty heartbreaking for me because it was as close as they got to winning a pennant aside from (1994) when they were in first and the strike was called."
Nestor has hit in practice before at Montreal's Olympic Stadium and Houston's Minute Maid Park. Both times in the cage were more than 15 years ago, however.
