"But nothing that hasn't been replaceable, so I've been very fortunate," he said.
Knowles and Nestor, of Canada, also won the 2002 Australian Open. But they have lost six other Grand Slam finals, including at the 1998 US Open.
"We had a lot of heartbreak over the years, losing a lot of finals, so this feels really great: winning," Nestor said. "I had a lot of help from my partner. He played great."
Knowles and Nestor, seeded third, knocked off Olympic champion Nicolas Massu and Fernando Gonzalez in the quarterfinals. Paes and Rikl, seeded 13th, beat defending champions Jonas Bjorkman and Todd Woodbridge in the third round en route to reaching their first major final as a team.
Mixed doubles
Bob Bryan won his second straight US Open mixed doubles title, pairing this time with Vera Zvonareva to beat Alicia Molik and Todd Woodbridge 6-3, 6-4 in Friday's final.
Bryan, who plays Davis Cup doubles for the US with twin brother Mike, won last year's Open with Katarina Srebotnik. In 2002, Bob Bryan and Srebotnik lost in the final to Mike Bryan and Lisa Raymond.
Women's doubles
Too exhausted to play after beating Jennifer Capriati in the singles semifinals, Elena Dementieva pulled out of the women's doubles semifinals Friday at the US Open.
Dementieva and Ai Sugiyama were scheduled to face two-time defending champions Virginia Ruano Pascual and Paola Suarez. In the final, the top-seeded Ruano Pascual and Suarez will play second-seeded Svetlana Kuznetsova and Elena Likhovtseva.
Kuznetsova and Likhovtseva advanced by beating Barbara Schett and Patty Schnyder 6-4, 6-2.
Kuznetsova meets Dementieva for the singles title Saturday night.
Over for Scoville
Not only is this the first US Open since 1986 with no American man in the semifinals -- there aren't any Americans in the boys' semifinals, either.
Scoville Jenkins, seeded 10th after winning the USTA Boys' 18s National Championship, was eliminated in the quarterfinals Friday by No. 2 Andreas Beck of Germany 6-3, 7-6 (5). Jenkins lost to Andy Roddick in the first round of the main tournament.
Another US junior, Sam Querrey, was beaten by No. 3 Andrew Murray of Britain 2-6, 7-6 (2), 6-1.
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