THE University of British Columbia's Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre was full of fascinating sights and sounds this weekend as Canada battled France in the Davis Cup - the tennis event that adds team play and national pride to world class tennis.
Fans draped in flags and painted red for Canada and blue for France kept the chants coming all weekend. A marching band crammed into a side section for Sunday's matches, filling each timeout with a blaring soundtrack. The infamous Vancouver Canucks green men were even there, courtside in skimpy white tennis shorts and headbands.
And of course, the players, including French superstars Gael Monfils and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Canada's rising superstar Milos Raonic, who won singles on Friday, battled alongside veteran Daniel Nestor in a losing doubles effort Saturday and then sent a shock through the event Sunday when he pulled out with an injury an hour before a crucial must-win match.
The North Shore was not represented on centre court at the Davis Cup but if you looked outside the lines there were three players representing the past, present and future of the sport as Canada battled and ultimately fell to the powerful French team.
North Vancouver 23year-old Philip Bester helped Canada get to this point, winning a crucial match in a Davis Cup tie last summer in Ecuador. He hasn't played since, however, due to a stress fracture in his hand that flared up in the Ecuador event followed by a heal injury he suffered in the fall. Bester is nearly back to full health and spent the week training with the Canadian team before sitting courtside in the players' box for every match.
"Being around the guys and having that kind of a bond as a team, it was great to be there and obviously motivating to get back quickly." he said after the event. If Bester had been healthy he would have been in the mix for a spot on the team. When Raonic pulled out he was replaced by alternate Frank Dancevic - a spot that just might have belonged to Bester if he had stayed healthy.
Did that thought cross his mind when he heard Raonic was out? "Yes and no," said Bester. "I've buried the hatchet on not being on the team for this tie. I've got over that and really looked forward to things one day at a time. But definitely it crossed my mind that it could have been me playing for sure. At the end of the day you never like to lose a player on your team due to injury."
No matter who was on court, said Bester, it would have been tough for Canada to knock off both Tsonga and Monfils on Sunday to win the tie. "I thought the French played very well - they showed us why they are a superpower in tennis."
Bester wasn't the only North Van player on the Canadian bench. Beside him for the entire event was 18-year-old Filip Peliwo, fresh off an appearance in the junior final at the Australian Open. Tennis Canada officials invited Peliwo to hang out with the team all week to get a sense of what Davis Cup play is all about. Bester went through the same process early in his career.
"I remember what that was like for me too when I did it," said Bester. "I was invited to go to Venezuela and it was an incredible experience to be around the guys. It's Davis Cup, it's not a regular tennis match, it's something completely different. . . . I'm sure it was a great experience for (Peliwo) and it will motivate him to work even harder to be on the team one day."
One more North Van star was in the house all weekend. Grant Connell, whose name now graces North Vancouver's tennis centre, was a Davis Cup dynamo in his day, compiling an 8-3 record in singles matches for Team Canada. Last weekend he was front and centre again as the event's honorary chairman.
"He's done great things for Canada," Bester said of Connell.
From Connell to Bester to, perhaps someday soon, Peliwo, a North Van string runs through Canada's Davis Cup history. And with a new national training centre now open at the North Shore Winter Club, more pros might be on the way. So what is it about the North Shore that lends itself to creating tennis talent? Is it the award-winning mountain water? The Shore's free-swinging attitude?
"To be honest with you, personally I think it's just coincidence from where we live," Bester said with a laugh, ruining a reporter's great idea. "I don't know if I'm supposed to say that. But it's great. It's great to see Filip doing so well and Grant has obviously done well in the past and with my results -it's funny how everyone is from the North Shore and the national training centre is there. Who knows, maybe we'll have a North Shore Davis Cup team soon."
