James Ward (tennis)

James Ward

Full name	James Ward[1]
Country	Great Britain England
Residence	London, England
Born	(1987-02-09) 9 February 1987 London, England
Height	6 ft 3 in (1.91 m)
Turned pro	2004
Plays	Right-handed (two-handed backhand)
Prize money	$505,904
Singles
Career record	17–26
Career titles	0
Highest ranking	No. 137 (30 April 2012)
Current ranking	No. 156 (3 February 2014)
Grand Slam Singles results
Australian Open	1R (2012)
French Open	Q1 (2010, 2011, 2012)
Wimbledon	2R (2012)
US Open	Q3 (2013)
Doubles
Career record	2–7
Career titles	0
Highest ranking	No. 233 (29 August 2011)
Current ranking	No. 750 (3 February 2014)
Grand Slam Doubles results
Wimbledon	2R (2009)
Last updated on: 5 February 2014.

James Ward (born 9 February 1987 in London) is an English tennis player, and British no. 3 behind Andy Murray and Dan Evans. He is mostly known for reaching the quarter finals of the 2010 Eastbourne International and the semi-finals of the 2011 Queen's Club Championship as a wildcard entry.

Career

He made his first tour appearance in Valencia in 2007 as a wild card but lost in the first round.

Ward qualified for only his second ATP tour event, the 2008 Stella Artois Championships at the Queen's Club in London. In the first round on 9 June he met former US Open and Australian Open champion, Russian player Marat Safin. Ward took the first set after breaking Safin in the third game of the match and managed to hold his serve for the rest of the set to take it 6–4. However Safin upped his game in the second set, gained an early break and won the set comfortably 6–1. Ward was also broken early in the deciding set losing 6–4, 1–6, 4–6.^[2][3]

2009

In 2009, he competed in the play-offs that were created by Davis Cup captain John Lloyd to find two more players for Great Britain to face Ukraine. In these, he competed in the previous longest match in tennis history, lasting 6 hours and 40 minutes, against fellow Brit Chris Eaton. Eaton won the match 6–3, 6–2, 6–7, 2–6, 21–19.

In May that year he became the first British player to win a challenger title on clay since Tim Henman in 1995. He beat Carsten Ball in the final of the Sarasota Open in Florida, USA.^[4] This win propelled him into the top 250 of the ATP's rankings.

2010

In June 2010, Ward reached his first ever ATP World Tour quarter-final at The Aegon International, Eastbourne, UK. Ward beat 2nd seeded Spaniard Feliciano López (who had beaten Rafael Nadal the week before) 6–3, 5–4 Retired. He followed it up with the other man to lose at the semi finals of Queens the week before, Rainer Schüttler, beating him 6–3, 7–6. He was eventually beaten by the young Ukrainian talent Alexandr Dolgopolov in straight sets, 3–6, 4–6.

He was selected to take part in Great Britain's vital Davis Cup by BNP Paribas tie vs Turkey, at Eastbourne, in July alongside Jamie Baker, Ken Skupski, Colin Fleming and Alex Ward . He contributed to the victory by winning both his singles matches (one a dead rubber) giving Great Britain a first Davis Cup win in three years.^[5]

2011

In March 2011, Ward played a key role in Great Britain's 4–1 win over Tunisia in the Euro/Africa II division of the Davis Cup, winning both his live singles rubbers, and ultimately clinching the victory with a 3–6, 6–3, 3–6, 6–3, 8–6 victory over Malek Jaziri in the fourth rubber.

At the 2011 Queen's Club Championships, he reached the semi-final of an ATP tour event for the first time. He defeated fourth seed and future grand slam champion Stanislas Wawrinka in straight sets in the second round.^[6] Ward followed this up by defeating defending champion and 13th seed Sam Querrey, coming from a set down to win in three sets to equal his run at Eastbourne in 2010. Ward then defeated Adrian Mannarino in three sets despite missing seven match points in the second set tiebreaker.^[7] He was eventually defeated by Jo Wilfried Tsonga 6–3 7–6, having held a set point in the second set tiebreaker.^[8] At Wimbledon Ward entered as a wildcard, but lost in the first round to Michaël Llodra.^[9] Following a short break, Ward's first tournament back was the Lexington Challenger. As top seed, Ward reached the final, losing to Wayne Odesnik. He was also runner-up in the doubles tournament. Two weeks later Ward won his second Challenger tournament of his career at the 2011 Odlum Brown Vancouver Open, defeating Robby Ginepri on 7 August. The win saw Ward rise to World No. 144. On 15 August ward rose to a career high ranking of No. 140.

2012

In January 2012 he qualified for his first Grand Slam outside of Wimbledon when he defeated Igor Sijsling 7–6, 6–2 to qualify for the first round of the 2012 Australian Open, where he lost in straight sets to Slovenian Blaž Kavčič. On 30 April 2012, Ward reached a career high ranking in singles of 137. At Wimbledon, Ward won his first ever match at a grand slam, coming through a gruelling five set match to defeat the World No. 36 Pablo Andújar 4–6, 6–0, 3–6, 6–3, 6–3. He won the final six games after trailing in the final set 0–3. In the second round Ward narrowly lost to Mardy Fish in another tough five setter 3–6, 7–5, 4–6, 7–6^(7–4), 3–6.

2013

In January 2013, Ward failed to qualify for the Australian Open, reaching the 3rd round of qualifying before losing to Julian Reister. Ward remained in Australia as he competed in the Charles Stuart Adelaide International, where he reached the final, defeating top seed Yūichi Sugita along the way, before losing 2–6 3–6 to home favourite Matthew Barton.

Ward was then selected for Great Britain's Davis Cup team for their match against Russia in Coventry. Ward lost an epic first rubber to Evgeny Donskoy4–6 4–6 7–5 6–2 8–6 to give Russia a 2–0 lead heading into the doubles rubber the following day. The doubles pairing of Jonny Marray and Colin Fleming gave the home side some hope going into the final day of matches, where Ward opened the day. Ward stunned the much higher seeded Russian Dmitry Tursunov 6–4 5–7 5–7 6–4 6–4 to level the tie. Dan Evans would eventually complete a remarkable turnaround, their first for Britain of this magnitude in 83 years, with a straight sets victory over Donskoy.^[10]

Ward kicked off his clay season in China where he qualified for the An-Ning ATP $50,000 Challenger event and reached the final. His route to the final included a victory over fourth seed Josselin Ouanna 2–6 6–3 6–2. He lost to Hungarian Márton Fucsovics in the final 5–7 6–3 3–6.

Ward's first grass tournament was the annual event at the Queen's Club where he lost in the first round to Ivan Dodig 7–6 6–7 6–7 despite having two match points on serve in the second set.

2014

In January 2014 Ward defeated Sam Querrey in the world group of Davis Cup to give Great Britain a 2-0 lead against USA

Career statistics

Career finals

ATP Challenger Tour

Singles: 6 (3 titles, 3 runner-ups)

Outcome	No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent	Score
Winner	1.	11 May 2009	Sarasota Open, Sarasota, United States	Clay	Carsten Ball	6–7(4–7), 6–4, 6–3
Runner-up	1.	24 July 2011	Fifth Third Bank Tennis Championships, Lexington, United States	Hard	Wayne Odesnik	5–7, 4–6
Winner	2.	7 August 2011	Odlum Brown Vancouver Open, Vancouver, Canada	Hard	Robby Ginepri	7–5, 6–4
Runner-up	2.	10 February 2013	Charles Sturt Adelaide International, Australia	Hard	Matthew Barton	2–6, 3–6
Runner-up	3.	5 May 2013	ATP China International Tennis Challenge, Anning, China	Clay	Márton Fucsovics	5–7, 6–3, 3–6
Winner	3.	28 July 2013	Fifth Third Bank Tennis Championships, Lexington, United States	Hard	James Duckworth	4–6, 6–3, 6–4

Doubles: 3 (2 titles, 1 runner-up)

Outcome	No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Partner	Opponent	Score
Winner	1.	4 August 2008	New Delhi Challenger III, New Delhi, India	Hard	Joshua Goodall	Tasuku Iwami Hiroki Kondo	6–4, 6–1
Winner	2.	3 May 2010	Savannah Challenger, Savannah, United States	Clay	Jamie Baker	Bobby Reynolds Fritz Wolmarans	6–3, 6–4
Runner-up	1.	24 July 2011	Fifth Third Bank Tennis Championships, Lexington, United States	Hard	Michael Yani	Jordan Kerr David Martin	3–6, 4–6

Grand Slam performance timelines

Singles

Doubles

Davis Cup: 14 (9 wins, 5 losses)

• indicates the result of the Davis Cup match followed by the score, date, place of event, the zonal classification and its phase, and the court surface.

Rubber outcome	No.	Rubber	Match type (partner if any)	Opponent nation	Opponent player(s)	Score
2–3; 5–7 March 2010; SEB Arena, Vilnius, Lithuania; Group II Europe/Africa First Round; Hard(i) surface
Victory	1.	II	Singles	Lithuania	Laurynas Grigelis	6–4, 6–2, 6–4
Defeat	2.	IV	Singles	Lithuania	Ričardas Berankis	6–7(4–7), 3–6, 4–6
5–0; 9–11 July 2010; Devonshire Park, Eastbourne, Great Britain; Group II Europe/Africa Relegation Play-off; Grass surface
Victory	3.	II	Singles	Turkey	Marsel İlhan	6–2, 7–5, 6–7(0–7), 6–1
Victory	4.	V	Singles	Turkey	Ergün Zorlu	6–1, 6–3
4–1; 4–6 March 2011; Bolton Arena, Bolton, Great Britain; Group II Europe/Africa First Round; Hard(i) surface
Victory	5.	II	Singles	Tunisia	Sami Ghorbel	6–0, 6–2, 6–0
Victory	6.	IV	Singles	Tunisia	Malek Jaziri	3–6, 6–3, 3–6, 6–3, 8–6
4–1; 8–10 July 2011; Braehead Arena, Glasgow, Great Britain; Group II Europe/Africa Quarterfinal; Hard(i) surface
Defeat	7.	I	Singles	Luxembourg	Gilles Müller	2–6, 6–7(4–7), 1–6
Victory	8.	V	Singles	Luxembourg	Mike Vermeer	6–1, 6–3
5–0; 16–18 September 2011; Braehead Arena, Glasgow, Great Britain; Group II Europe/Africa Semifinal; Hard(i) surface
Victory	9.	I	Singles	Hungary	Attila Balázs	6–4, 6–4, 4–6, 6–4
3–2; 10–12 February 2012; Braehead Arena, Glasgow, Great Britain; Group I Europe/Africa First Round; Hard(i) surface
Defeat	10.	II	Singles	Slovakia	Martin Kližan	2–6, 6–4, 4–6, 6–7(3–7)
Defeat	11.	IV	Singles	Slovakia	Lukáš Lacko	6–7(6–8), 1–6, 3–6
3–2; 10–12 February 2013; Ricoh Arena, Coventry, Great Britain; Group I Europe/Africa Quarterfinal; Hard(i) surface
Defeat	12.	II	Singles	Russia	Evgeny Donskoy	6–4, 6–4, 3–6, 5–7, 6–8
Victory	13.	IV	Singles	Russia	Dmitry Tursunov	6–4, 5–7, 5–7, 6–4, 6–4
3–1; 31 January – 2 February 2014; Petco Park, San Diego, California, United States; World Group First Round; Clay surface
Victory	14.	II	Singles	United States	Sam Querrey	1–6, 7–6(7–3), 3–6, 6–4, 6–1

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to James Ward (tennis).

• James Ward at the Association of Tennis Professionals
• James Ward at the International Tennis Federation
• LTA Profile

v t e Association of Tennis Professionals: Top ten British male singles tennis players as of 3 February 2014 1. Andy Murray (6 ) 2. Daniel Evans (147 1) 3. James Ward (156 19) 4. Daniel Cox (247 2) 5. David Rice (307 10) 6. Kyle Edmund (318 18) 7. Edward Corrie (320 24) 8. Daniel Smethurst (341 36) 9. Marcus Willis (393 10) 10. Oliver Golding (400 2)