About Robert Bédard (tennis)
Robert Bédard (born 13 September 1931) is a former Canadian tennis player and educator. He is the most recent Canadian winner of the men's Canadian Open Tennis Championships. Bédard won three Canadian Open singles titles in 1955 (over Henri Rochon in the final), 1957 (over Ramanathan Krishnan in the final) and 1958 (over Whitney Reed in the final). Bédard won a record seven Quebec Open singles championships and two Ontario Open singles titles. Bédard won the ILTF Sutton Hard Courts or ILTF Surrey Hard Court Championships on clay at Sutton, England in 1957. That same season he won the North of England Hard Court Championships on clay at Southport, England. He won the USLTA Eastern Clay Court Championships in 1960. His career titles won was 30 tournaments, mostly on clay, in a very restricted playing career often confined to just the summer months. Bédard was considered among the top ten clay court players in the world and was the top-ranked Canadian singles player in 11 consecutive years from 1955 to 1965. At the height of his career, he was unbeaten in 216 consecutive matches against Canadian players. Bédard represented Canada in Davis Cup play for many years, reaching North America Zone and Interzone Finals in 1953, 1955, and 1959. During his career, he defeated No. 1 players from 21 different countries, including Australia and the U.S. Bédard was a multi-sport athlete and was offered professional contracts with the New York Rangers ice hockey team and the Cleveland Indians baseball team, which he declined in favour of a career in academia. He became the principal of St. Andrew's College, an elite private preparatory collegiate, from 1981 to 1997.
Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.