In 1980, at the age of 14, Canter was the youngest player ever to appear in the world rankings of the ATP. In 1982 he was in the semi-finals of the doubles competition of the junior tournament of Wimbledon , in the doubles finals of the junior tournament of the French Open and won the double title of the junior tournament of the US Open at the side of Michael Kures . In the individual, he also made it to the quarter-finals in these three tournaments.
In 1983 he became a professional tennis player, but was initially unable to build on his successes in the junior sector. It was not until 1985 that he achieved notable successes; he reached the quarter-finals in Tokyo and Hong Kong and celebrated his greatest success on the ATP World Tour in December when he won the Melbourne lawn tournament . However, this should remain his only single title. Although he reached the semifinals of the Toronto indoor tournament and the semifinals of the Canadian Masters (where he was defeated by the eventual champion Boris Becker ) in the following year, he subsequently played mostly on the ATP Challenger Tour . There he did not get any tournament wins in the individual, but he was able to win three Challenger double titles between 1990 and 1993. He reached his highest ranking in the tennis world rankings in 1986 with position 36 in singles and in 1990 with position 84 in doubles.
His best individual result in a Grand Slam tournament was reaching the second round, which he achieved in all four tournaments. In the doubles competition he reached the second round at Wimbledon and at the US Open. In 1991 he also competed in mixed , where he reached the second round on the side of Alysia May .