Philip Bester

Philip Bester (born October 6, 1988) is a Canadian former professional tennis player from North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

While still a junior, Bester competed in Canada F1 and F2 Futures tournaments in 2004, losing handily in the first round of each.

He was a member of the 2005 Canadian Davis Cup team as a 17-year-old.

In 2005, he won he first tour match 6–2, 6–4, over compatriot Rob Steckley, in the Granby Challenger.

He lost convincingly in the first round of the Vancouver Challenger and Canada Masters tournaments during the same summer before reaching the semi-finals of Canada F1 in Toronto in October.

Bester was a finalist at the 2006 junior French Open.

In doing so he became the first Canadian male to reach a Grand Slam final in singles.

Bester was coached by his dad Alek Bester from age 5 when he started.

Alek, a long time P.E. teacher at York House School in Vancouver, was the core of Philip's physical and tennis development till around the age of 16.

Rufus Nel a high performance coach from South Africa was also a big part of Philip's early development, contributing his tennis knowledge and expertise on the game of tennis.

At age 13, still coached by his dad, Philip moved down to Florida to attend the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy.

There he spent 4 years, before teaming up with Jon Sorbo for the 2006 year.

He was also voted British Columbia's junior male athlete of the year for 2005 and reached a career-high No. 8 on the International Tennis Federation Junior Boys rankings on January 2, 2006.

Bester's best junior result was in the Boys' singles section of the 2006 French Open.

He had a remarkable run for a natural serve-and-volleyer in becoming the first Canadian male junior to play in a Grand Slam final.

(Later that year at the U.S. Open, Peter Polansky duplicated the feat.) Bester lost his final to Martin Kližan, 3–6, 1–6.

In 2006, Bester competed in Canada's tie versus Mexico, losing a singles dead rubber in straight sets to Bruno Echagaray.

He followed this up with a semi-finals result at U.S.A. F9 in Vero Beach.

In July he won his first Davis Cup match, in a live rubber over Jhonnatan Medina-Álvarez of Venezuela, as Canada prevailed to remain in the America Group 1 pool.

Competing in a total of 7 Futures and 3 Challenger events for the year, Bester reached a high rank of World No. 670, in November.

Bester began the year going 1 win and 1 loss at both Panama F1 and Costa Rica F1.

He lost in the first round of his next two Futures events before again going 1 and 1 at this next two, Canada F2 and F3.

Bester next reached the semi-finals of U.S.A. F7, and the quarter-finals of U.S.A. F8.

He reached a new career high ranking in singles in May 2007 at World No. 589.

Bester went 1 and 1 in each of his next two events, but again failed at the challenger and ATP level, losing in the first round as a wildcard at Granby, Vancouver, and the Rogers Cup.

He went 5 and 4 in his next four Futures events, including a semi-finals result at U.S.A. F24.

He again, however, failed to win in a Challenger, losing in the first round in Rimouski and Louisville.

He finished the year going 2 and 2 in two Futures events in Mexico.

Bester began the year going 1 win and 1 loss at both New Zealand F1 and F2, in February–March.

He then lost in the first round of his next six events, Canada F2, U.S.A. F9, F10, F12, F13, and the Granby Challenger.

He finally reached the second round of a challenger event, Moncton, defeating Satoshi Iwabuchi before falling to Nicholas Monroe.

He lost in the first round at the next three Challengers that he contested before reaching the second round at U.S.A. F26 and the semi-finals of U.S.A. F27.

Bester finished the year losing in the first round of the Rimouski Challenger.

For 2008, in singles, he went 1 and 7 in Challenger events and 6 and 9 in Futures.

For 2009, as of May 17, Bester had 12 wins and 8 losses in singles after eight tournaments - Mexico F1, F2, U.S.A. F4, Canada F1 and F2, and U.S.A. F7, F8, F9, F10, and F11.

His best result was winning U.S.A. F11 at Harbour Island, Florida without dropping a set, where he beat unseeded Barbadian Haydn Lewis in the final, 6–2, 7–6.

This result, securing him 17 ATP points, saw his ranking soar by exactly 100 places.

In doubles, Bester and compatriot Vasek Pospisil reached the quarter-finals of U.S.A. F5.

The following week he and another Canadian, Kamil Pajkowski, also reached the quarters, this time of Canada F1.

The week after, Bester again reached the quarter-finals, of Canada F2, partnering Portuguese player Gastão Elias.