reached the final of the Hollywood Beach Invitational, losing in three straight sets to Gardnar Mulloy. He later reached the final of the 1954 Stuttgart Open, losing to Gottfried von Cramm. He was a quarterfinalist at the 1954 Italian Open, winning a five-set marathon over Sven Davidson despite losing the first two sets, and later losing to defending champion Jaroslav Drobny. The No. 1 seed for the 1954 French Open, Lew Hoad, defeated Bédard in the third round at Roland Garros in three close sets. A month later, Bédard won his first match at Wimbledon, a close four set victory over Gordon Forbes, and also won his second round match. Fred Perry, who covered Wimbledon for BBC, stated that Bedard was the most complete athlete in the tournament and noted his competitive zeal in matches. Hoad, the Wimbledon No. 2 seed, eliminated Bédard in the third round in four sets, Bédard winning the third set from Hoad. Bédard reached the final of the Quebec Open championships, where he lost a long four-set match to Lorne Main, who had won the Monte Carlo and Belgian titles that season on red clay in Europe. 1955 In European play, Bédard won a close five set match against Orlando Sirola in the second round of the Italian Championships. Bédard reached the semifinal at Cannes, defeating Jacques Brichant, but lost to Wladyslaw Skonecki. He won a close match against Nicola Pietrangeli in the Queen's Club Championships, but lost in the third round to Hoad. At the 1955 Wimbledon Championships, Bedard lost in the first round to Herb Flam. In 1955, Bédard won his first Canadian Open championship at Quebec City in August on clay. Bédard defeated Don Fontana in the semifinal and Henri Rochon in the final. Rochon had eliminated Lorne Main in the other semifinal. Bédard won the Nova Scotia Championships for 1955. Bédard also beat Rochon in the final of the Quebec championships in July. He reached the third round at Forest Hills in 1955 for the first of an eventual four times, but again it was Hoad that he came up against, this time Hoad winning in three straight sets. 1956 In July Bédard won the Quebec Open over Don Fontana in the final. He also won the Ontario Championships in July beating Paul Willey in the final, Willey having a win over Pietrangeli at Florence that season. As defending champion in