Philip Bester

Biography

Philip Bester (born October 6, 1988 in Sonthofen, Germany) is a Canadian former professional tennis player. He is of Polish descent from and now resides in North Vancouver, British Columbia. He reached a career-high singles ranking of No. 225 on July 27, 2015 and a career-high junior ranking of No. 8 on January 2, 2006. 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, 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 2017.

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.

ATP Challenger Tour and ITF Futures finals

Singles: 19 (9 titles, 10 runners-up)

Legend
ATP Challenger Tour (0–1)
ITF Futures (9–9)

Result	W–L	Date	Tournament	Tier	Surface	Opponent	Score
Win	1–0	May 2009	USA F11, Tampa	Futures	Clay	Haydn Lewis (BAR)	6–2, 7–6(9–7)
Loss	1–1	Jun 2010	France F9, Toulon	Futures	Clay	Augustin Gensse (FRA)	1–6, 4–6
Win	2–1	Jul 2010	France F12, Saint-Gervais	Futures	Clay	Augustin Gensse (FRA)	6–2, 2–6, 6–2
Loss	2–2	Sep 2010	Spain F33, Móstoles	Futures	Clay	Roberto Bautista-Agut (ESP)	7–6(7–4), 4–6, 2–6
Win	3–2	Oct 2010	USA F28, Birmingham	Futures	Clay	James Lemke (AUS)	0–6, 6–2, 6–0
Win	4–2	Nov 2010	Amelia Island	Futures	Clay	Ádám Kellner (HUN)	7–6(7–2), 6–4
Win	5–2	Jun 2011	USA F14, Chico	Futures	Hard	Blake Strode (USA)	6–4, 6–2
Win	6–2	Jul 2013	Canada F3, Kelowna	Futures	Hard	Brayden Schnur (CAN)	6–7(9–11), 7–6(8–6), 6–3
Loss	6–3	Aug 2013	Canada F5, Calgary	Futures	Hard	Brayden Schnur (CAN)	6–7(5–7), 6–3, 6–7(4–7)
Loss	6–4	Sep 2013	Canada F9, Markham	Futures	Hard (i)	Filip Peliwo (CAN)	Walkover
Loss	6–5	Sep 2014	Canada F11, Markham	Futures	Hard (i)	Farris Fathi Gosea (GBR)	6–7(8–10), 6–3, 4–6
Loss	6–6	Dec 2014	Mexico F15, Mérida	Futures	Hard	Dennis Novikov (USA)	4–6, 4–6
Win	7–6	Mar 2015	Italy F2, Trento	Futures	Carpet (i)	Quentin Halys (FRA)	3–6, 7–5, 6–3
Loss	7–7	Mar 2015	Canada F1, Gatineau	Futures	Hard (i)	Tennys Sandgren (USA)	3–6, 6–7(7–9)
Win	8–7	Jun 2015	Canada F3, Richmond	Futures	Hard	Brayden Schnur (CAN)	3–6, 6–4, 7–6(7–4)
Loss	8–8	Jul 2015	Granby, Canada	Challenger	Hard	Vincent Millot (FRA)	4–6, 4–6
Loss	8–9	Jan 2016	USA F1, Los Angeles	Futures	Hard	Stefan Kozlov (USA)	6–7(7–9), 7–6(7–3), 3–6
Win	9–9	Jul 2016	Canada F5, Saskatoon	Futures	Hard	Peter Polansky (CAN)	6–4, 4–6, 6–4
Loss	9–10	Apr 2017	USA F13, Little Rock	Futures	Hard	Brayden Schnur (CAN)	6–7(4–7), 1–6

ATP Challenger Tour and ITF Futures doubles titles (20)

Legend
ATP Challenger Tour (7)
ITF Futures (13)

No.	Date	Tournament	Tier	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
1.	Nov 2007	Mexico F12, Mazatlán	Futures	Hard	Glenn Weiner (USA)	Fernando Cabrera (MEX) Carlos Palencia (MEX)	6–3, 6–2
2.	Jul 2008	Granby, Canada	Challenger	Hard	Peter Polansky (CAN)	Alberto Francis (USA) Nicholas Monroe (USA)	2–6, 6–1, [10–5]
3.	Apr 2009	USA F7, Mobile	Futures	Hard	Milos Raonic (CAN)	Lester Cook (USA) Treat Huey (PHI)	6–3, 1–6, [10–5]
4.	Oct 2009	USA F26, Mansfield	Futures	Hard	Jonathan Eysseric (FRA)	Brett Joelson (USA) Todd Paul (USA)	6–4, 6–7(3–7), [10–7]
5.	Jun 2010	France F9, Toulon	Futures	Clay	Jonathan Eysseric (FRA)	Ashwin Kumar (AUS) Rupesh Roy (IND)	6–3, 6–4
6.	Jul 2010	France F10, Montauban	Futures	Clay	Jonathan Eysseric (FRA)	Julien Obry (FRA) Albano Olivetti (FRA)	Walkover
7.	Sep 2010	Spain F33, Móstoles	Futures	Hard	Kamil Pajkowski (CAN)	Óscar Burrieza (ESP) Javier Martí (ESP)	7–6(7–5), 4–6, [13–11]
8.	Oct 2010	USA F28, Birmingham	Futures	Clay	Kamil Pajkowski (CAN)	Dennis Blömke (GER) James Lemke (AUS)	6–7(4–7), 6–4, [10–5]
9.	Feb 2011	Burnie, Australia	Challenger	Hard	Peter Polansky (CAN)	Marinko Matosevic (AUS) Rubin Jose Statham (NZL)	6–4, 3–6, [14–12]
10.	May 2012	USA F13, Tampa	Futures	Clay	Kamil Pajkowski (CAN)	Haydn Lewis (BAR) Olivier Sajous (HAI)	7–6(8–6), 6–1
11.	Jul 2012	Granby, Canada	Challenger	Hard	Vasek Pospisil (CAN)	Yuichi Ito (JPN) Takuto Niki (JPN)	6–1, 6–2
12.	Nov 2014	Italy F39, Santa Margherita di Pula	Futures	Clay	Matteo Volante (ITA)	Gastón-Arturo Grimolizzi (ARG) Giorgio Portaluri (ITA)	6–2, 6–4
13.	Dec 2014	Mexico F15, Mérida	Futures	Hard	Eric Quigley (USA)	Dean O'Brien (RSA) Juan Carlos Spir (COL)	4–6, 7–6(7–5), [12–10]
14.	Mar 2015	Drummondville, Canada	Challenger	Hard (i)	Chris Guccione (AUS)	Frank Dancevic (CAN) Frank Moser (GER)	6–4, 7–6(8–6)
15.	Jul 2015	Canada F4, Kelowna	Futures	Hard	Matt Seeberger (USA)	Hunter Nicholas (USA) Raymond Sarmiento (USA)	7–6(8–6), 6–4
16.	Jul 2015	Granby, Canada	Challenger	Hard	Peter Polansky (CAN)	Enzo Couacaud (FRA) Luke Saville (AUS)	6–7(5–7), 7–6(7–2), [10–7]
17.	Feb 2016	Cuernavaca, Mexico	Challenger	Hard	Peter Polansky (CAN)	Marcelo Arévalo (ESA) Sergio Galdós (PER)	6–4, 3–6, [10–6]
18.	Jun 2016	Canada F3, Richmond	Futures	Hard	Peter Polansky (CAN)	Farris Fathi Gosea (GBR) Tim Kopinski (USA)	7–6(7–2), 6–2
19.	Jul 2016	Canada F5, Saskatoon	Futures	Hard	Peter Polansky (CAN)	Christian Lakoseljac (CAN) David Volfson (CAN)	6–3, 6–2
20.	Sep 2016	Cary, United States	Challenger	Hard	Peter Polansky (CAN)	Stefan Kozlov (USA) Austin Krajicek (USA)	6–2, 6–2

Junior Grand Slam finals

Singles: 1 (1 runner-up)

Result	Year	Tournament	Surface	Opponent	Score
Loss	2006	French Open	Clay	Martin Kližan (SVK)	3–6, 1–6