Philip Bester

Biography
Philip Bester (born October 6, 1988 in Sonthofen, Germany) is a Canadian former professional tennis player. He reached a career-high ATP singles ranking of No. 225 on July 27, 2015 and a career-high ATP doubles ranking of No. 140 on October 3, 2016.

Bester was a finalist at the 2006 junior French Open and in doing so, he became the first Canadian male to reach a Grand Slam final in singles. At the 2015 Pan American Games in Toronto, Ontario, he won a silver medal in mixed doubles with Gabriela Dabrowski. Also in 2015, he reached his first ATP Challenger singles final, losing to Vincent Millot in Granby. He retired in August 2017. Bester made a brief return in March 2018 at an ITF 25K in Calabasas, United States, but lost in the second round of qualifying.

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, Bester 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.