Henri Rochon (12 March 1924 – 5 February 2005) was a Canadian National tennis champion and

Davis Cup The Davis Cup is the premier international team event in men's tennis. It is run by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and is contested annually between teams from competing countries in a knock-out format. It is described by the organis ...

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player. Born in and resident to Montreal, Rochon won the Canadian Open, the precursor to today's

Rogers Cup The Canadian Open (french: Tournoi de tennis du Canada), also known as the Canada Masters, and currently branded as the National Bank Open presented by Rogers for sponsorship reasons, is an annual tennis tournament held in Ontario and Quebec. T ...

ATP 1000 Series event, in 1949, defeating fellow Canadian

Lorne Main Lorne Main (July 9, 1930 – October 14, 2019) was a Canadian world-class amateur tennis player who competed in 11 Grand Slam tournaments in singles. Main was ranked No.1 in Canada for men's singles in 1951, 1953, and 1954. He won the singles tit ...

in the final. He was also a three-time finalist, losing to American William Tully in 1948; to Canadian Brendan Macken in 1950; and to fellow Québécois Robert Bédard in 1955. Rochon appeared in U.S. National Championship fourteen consecutive times in singles, beginning in 1945. His best result came in 1951 when he reached the fourth round. In that round, he leveled his match with No. 5 seed

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at a set all before falling in four. In the same year, he made his only

Wimbledon Championships The Wimbledon Championships, commonly known simply as Wimbledon, is the oldest tennis tournament in the world and is widely regarded as the most prestigious. It has been held at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, All England Club in ...

appearance, reaching the second round. Rochon won the Ontario Championships in 1947 and 1949 at the Toronto Lawn Tennis Club on red clay, defeating Brendan Macken in the 1947 semifinal. Rochon won the Adirondack Invitation on clay in 1955, defeating

Ricardo Balbiers Ricardo Balbiers is a former tennis player active in the 1940s and 1950s. Balbiers played soccer in his youth and didn't pick up tennis until the age of 13, when his sister needed someone to compete against. In 1947 he came to the United States ...

of Chile in the final. In the Davis Cup, Rochon played matches for Canada every year from 1946 through 1953 as well as in 1955 and 1956. All ties he played in, except for the last one, were home fixtures and took place at the

Mount Royal Tennis Club The Mount Royal Tennis Club has been the most-used venue for Canada hosting Davis Cup ties. It has been the country's most prominent grass court Davis Cup venue. The MRTC has played host to 28 Davis Cup ties between 1923 and 1964. All but the last ...

in Montreal on a grass surface, although the Canadian players were clay specialists. (The final one was played away against

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, in

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). As with other Canadians of that era, Rochon never beat an

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player in 8 matches, losing all 24 sets. Against

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, his match win–loss record was 2 wins, 4 losses in singles and 1 and 1 in doubles; as a team, Canada, featuring Rochon, lost two ties to Mexico in the late 1940s before winning two in the 1950s. Canada's best result during that time was reaching the America zone Final five times – 1947, 1951, 1952, 1953, and 1955. Each time, however, they would come up against either the U.S. or Australia. (At the time there were two zones – Europe and America, with the latter being essentially a 'rest of the world' zone.)

References

Sources

ITF Circuit profile pageDavis Cup profile/activity page

External links

(French)
Canadian Encyclopedia
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rochon, Henri 1924 births 2005 deaths Canadian male tennis players French Quebecers Tennis players from Montreal