Robert Bédard

Canada’s Robert Bédard won a singles silver medal at the 1959 Pan American Games in Chicago. He is a three-time Canadian Open singles champion (1955, 1957, 1958), doubles champion (1955, 1957, 1959 with Don Fontana), and won the mixed doubles title in 1959 (with Mariette Laframboise). From 1953-61 and in 1967, Bédard was a member of the Canadian Davis Cup team and had a career win-loss record of 11 and 22 (eight and 15 in singles, three and seven in doubles). Bédard’s top Grand Slam results include reaching the round of 32 at both Roland Garros and Wimbledon (1954) and four times at Forest Hills’ US Open (1955, 1956, 1959, 1961).

For 11 consecutive years from 1955-65, Bédard was the top-ranked Canadian player in singles and was unbeaten in 216 consecutive matches. During this decade, he only lost once to fellow Canadian Reider Getz at the 1964 Québec Championships. From 1952-70, he was nationally ranked no lower than third and Québec’s number one player in 1953.

Bédard attended the University of California – Los Angeles (UCLA) on tennis scholarship for the 1952-53 school year. He remained active in tennis as a senior playing doubles with his son Peter, and became the Canadian Over-75 singles champion. Bédard served as president of Tennis Québec from 1967-70, vice-president of Tennis Canada from 1973-77, and was a television colour commentator in 1967-68. Married to his wife Ann, Bédard was a school teacher at Bishop’s College School in Sherbrooke, Québec and in 1971 he joined St. Andrew’s College in Aurora, Ontario becoming headmaster in 1981. 

Bédard was awarded the Queen’s Jubilee Prize in 1977. He is a member of the Seminaire de Sherbrooke Hall of Fame, Loyola College Hall of Fame, and the Rogers’ Cup Hall of Fame. Bédard was inducted into the Canadian Tennis Hall of Fame and Québec Sports Hall of Fame in 1991, Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame in 1996, and Aurora Sports Hall of Fame in 2013 (as an inaugural inductee).