lit a candle 3h agoMy uncle used to talk about that Wimbledon match against Van Patten like it happened yesterday, the comeback from two sets down. I found the footage years later on a slow night and finally got why he never shut up about that backhand. 67 is no age.
Their story
Bernard Boileau was a Belgian tennis player, eight times national singles champion and a member of the Belgian Davis Cup team from 1977 to 1985, whose elegant backhand was admired by Yannick Noah. He reached a career high singles ranking of 41st in the world in early 1983. He died…
Bernard Boileau was a Belgian tennis player, eight times national singles champion and a member of the Belgian Davis Cup team from 1977 to 1985, whose elegant backhand was admired by Yannick Noah. He reached a career high singles ranking of 41st in the world in early 1983. He died on 4 October 2026 in Lierneux, in the province of Liège, aged 67.
Born in Liège on 25 May 1959 into a modest working family, Boileau stood out very young. At 15 he won the Tournoi de l'Espérance, then the unofficial Belgian championship for the best young players, and at 17 his talent took him to the Royal Léopold Club in Brussels. He made his Davis Cup debut in 1977, aged 17, facing Ilie Năstase in his first tie, and went on to play 14 ties for Belgium, winning 22 of his 38 rubbers.
He won his first Belgian title at 19 and dominated the national game for years afterwards, adding his eighth and last title in 1985. On the international circuit he reached the semi-finals in Brussels in 1979, the quarter-finals in Linz in 1981 and the second round of both the French Open and Wimbledon in 1982, where he came from two sets to one down to beat Vincent Van Patten, then ranked 26th. In 1983 he won the doubles title in Nice with Libor Pimek and beat Andrés Gómez and Tim Mayotte on the way to the semi-finals at Guarujá in Brazil. In 1984 he reached the semi-finals in Hilversum and beat top ten player Kevin Curren in Brussels. His last Grand Slam match win came at the 1984 French Open against Guy Forget.
Boileau often preferred to stay in Belgium, where the leading players could earn well in domestic tournaments, rather than travel the world circuit. Personal difficulties and addiction, which he spoke about publicly, gradually drew him away from top level tennis, and he stopped playing on the tour in 1986, aged 27. In 1988 he said he had used heroin almost daily towards the end of his career, and in 1990 a Belgian court sentenced him to more than three years in prison for drug use, assault and dangerous driving. He later rebuilt his life, training in computing and beginning pastoral studies in the early 2000s, and remained close to tennis as a coach and as a consultant for the Belgian broadcaster RTBF. He was the father of two children, Maude and Jean.
His death, which L'Avenir described as peaceful, was announced in Belgian newspapers on 7 October 2026. The French speaking Belgian tennis federation called him a pure talent who would always remain a player apart in the history of Belgian tennis.
Biography adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0), Tennis Padel Pickleball Wallonie-Bruxelles, RTBF, L'Avenir and the Dethier funeral notice. Wikipedia ↗
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1Bernard Boileau
by People Forever
that match is still online somewhere, worth digging for