To the causal tennis fan, James Ward is just another low ranked player, who occassionally does extraordinary things. To the British tennis fans who follow the tour all year round, he is much more than that, to the Americans he is a thorn in their side.
Ward, who is 28, just a few months older than Andy Murray, has frequented the challenger tour mostly since turning professional. Toilling away week in week out on the challengers, trying to earn ranking points to get over that all important line of being able to call yourself a top 100 player. Unfortunately, his consistency had been an issue as he could play great one week or one match but then not have a good day the next.
As the current British number 4* Ward certainly thrives on the big occassions. Instrumental in helping Great Britian back into the World Group of the Davis Cup competition, he scored several good wins to get the team back where they belong (GB were one of the founding nations of the competion, but had unfortunatly dropped back out of the world group of late - mostly down to the lack of top class players, but that is a different topic!) Plugging away on the challenger tour showed he had the work ethic and this was picked up on by the Davis Cup captain Leon Smith. Ward and Dan Evans were the players called upon to help get the team back up there. Andy Murray was not playing Davis Cup at the time, mainly because he didn't want it to all fall to him everytime and he wanted other players to step up. Ward did just that, he was the #1 player available for Davis Cup and so he would play every tie.
Davis Cup Heroics 2013 - 2014
In 2013 GB were aiming to get back into the World Group, they had progressed nicely up the lower groups and arrived within a couple of matches of making it, Ward as the top player once again needed to score a victory in the final rubber of the tie to get GB the win and to reach the play off match. He did just that, getting a 5 set victory in front of the crowd cheering the team home.
In the play off match, Ward become the numbeer 2 singles player as Murray re-joined the team. He had seen how hard they had been working and that they were able to step up without him. The play off match was won by GB and so they were back in the World group. Ward was still trying to improve his ranking and he was well within the top 200 but was aiming higher. Unfortunately Ward was not able to capitalise on his win here and struggled a bit for consistency again, so was making slow but steady progress up the rankings.
Moving on to 2014 and the Davis Cup draw had thrown the 2 original founding nations together for the first time in many years. As the last time GB faced USA the tie was in Britain, this time it would be an "away" tie for the Brits. Jim Courier the USA captain did not have the use of his Number one player as John Isner was out injured with a foot injury, so Sam Querry stepped in as number 1, and Donald Young was drafted in as the 2nd player. They knew they wouldn't be able to beat Murray, but no problem with beating Ward, a player ranked down in the 100's - yeah, that would be easy right? Murray finished off Young so it was time for Querry to step up, incidentally the Americans had chosen clay as that is known to be the Brits worst surface. The USA believed they would even up the tie, as Querry would defeat Ward easily, at least that was what it said on paper.
The Americans could not have been more wrong, Ward, showed again that he is capable of beating top 50 players and took this match again in 5 sets, this author remembers watching the last bit of the match, I tuned in to see that Ward looked to be down and out in set 4, but I was still willing him on. As the tie was in America the time difference actually worked in my favour for once, the night was drawing in and fortunately I didn't have to get up for work the next day, so I stayed up to watch. I had decided that I would go at the end of the match or the 4th set whichever happened to be first (or together). I was unable to drag myself away and was quietly making noises at the TV - it was after midnight by this point. Ward was impressive in his win over Querry and we saw the "Wardy roar" I was happy we were 2-0 up in the tie and went on to win 3-1 (Ward didn't need to play a dead rubber), and had won on US soil for the first time since about 1936.
Davis Cup 2015 Deja Vu
Ward was unable to make a jump in the rankings again after this tie, and again there were some wondering if he would ever break that barrier and arrive in the top 100. Towards the end of the 2014 Ward was very nearly there, as he managed to hit a career high of 101, before other results dropped him back down the order again. When the 2015 Davis Cup draw was made GB again were again drawn to play the USA, the Americans would be out for revenge, they would want to repay what happened the previous year and would be trying to beat GB on home soil. With the tie being in March, outdoor grass court would not be an option, so we selected and indoor hard court. The US captain (still Jim Courier) named his team to try and achieve this. Donald Young was here again, and this time the US number one was also available, so along came John Isner. Again it was expected (by the US) that Donald Young would be needed for the 5th rubber, so he had been selected to beat Ward in that all important rubber (so basically, they knew Young stood no chance of beating Murray, and thought that history couldn't repeat itself, afterall Isner was a top 20 playr and Ward was 111). Again, Murray saw off Young with the crowd in Glasgow fully behind him. The TV commentators kept saying the "Scottish crowd" which was kind of annoying, as this author was there and I am certainly not Scottish, I am British though and it was Team GB against USA. I did get what they were trying to allude to though as this was the first time Murray had played in Scotland since his fantastic Wimbledon win. So, without too much trouble Murray gave GB a 1-0 lead, so up step Isner and Ward. This was the US guaranteed win, it was in the bag, the tie would be 1-1 by the end of Friday. Incidentally, before the tie, Ward had played Isner in an exhibition match in the states and had beaten him, but that didn't count in head to head meetings and no one was worried.
Ward once again stepped up and showed just what he can do in the big arena, taking Isner to a first set tiebreak, and he was leading that, when Isner got a very lucky net cord and went on to win the tiebreak. Set 2 and Ward again was staying with Isner throughout the set, but was broken right towards the end and the US were up 2-0 in this part of the tie. It was all over right, Isner would win the next set and that would be the tie level.
Well, USA learnt something that day, you should never under-estimate James Ward, he broke Isner in set 3 and not only that but got the set. Set 4 went to a tiebreak, and it was level, could Ward do this, could he come back from 2 sets down. With Murray, the GB team and the whole of the stadium (bar a few American supporters) making noise and roaring him on, Ward took Isner to the death. Those familiar with the format know there is no final set tiebreak in Davis Cup, and Isner has been known to get involved in long matches, neither player was blinking and the scoreboard clicked over 12-12, 13-13, 14-13 and Isner would be serving to stay in the tie. Wardy broke him to love, dropped his racket, the stadium rose as one and cheered, yelled, clapped, cried, and danced. Ward had done it again, the Americans don't like talking about Ward and Davis cup matches anymore.
Grass court season including Wimbledon - Time to make history
Could Ward now push on and get over that line, knowing that the next tie would be on grass, Ward entered as many grass court tournaments (ATP and challenger) as he could, securing wildcards into Nottingham and Queens. Reaching the QF in Manchester before going out, and then going out in R1 in the next event there was even some talk about Ward even making the team for the QF. Onto Queens and with a very hard draw, Ward would be facing Raonic in round 1. He managed to break serve and take a set from Raonic, before the Canadian decided he was not having that and took the next 2 sets. When the Wimbledon draw came out (again, he was here on a wildcard) Ward had been drawn to take on David Ferrer, that would be a very very difficult match, and it looked that Ward may end up going out early again, although Ferrer had not played well recently. Ferrer then withdrew, and a Lucky Loser was brought in. With only 2 ranking place differences between Ward and Luca Vanni this was a big chance to progress into round 2 for only the second time After losing the first on a tiebreak, Ward upped his game and won through in 4 sets to land in round 2, and his provisional ranking rose from 111 to 97. One more win would cement that top 100 place. Up next was Jiri Veseley ranked at 46, and Ward is still ranked at 111 as the rankings dont officially change until the tournament ends.
Veseley was not going to be a pushover, and Ward knew this. Having had his coach (Darren Tandy) do some research, and practising with Murray, Ward came out like he meant business, racing off to a 3-0 lead, and that was all he needed for the first set, the second went to a tiebreak which Ward also won, coming back from 0-3 down he played a sublime lob that levelled the scoreline, and Ward took a 2 set lead. Veseley came back in set 3 as Ward level dropped a little bit, but the crowd on Wimbledon court 2 soon got behind Ward again, with them urging him on, he secured the 4th set an was in uncharted territory. Round 3 of a grand slam, he would get a main court for his next match (Court 1, which in addtion to Centre was a dream he had held) and his ranking rose to provisionally 88. The round 4 opponent was Vasek Pospisil, who was consulting a notebook on court at change of ends - wonder what they said?
We will need to wait until the end of Wimbledon to find out exactly where Ward will be, but he is guaranteed to be within the top 100, which will also mean direct entry to the US Open. Leon Smith will have to name his team for the Davis Cup tie by Tuesday, on his performances both in all previous ties, and specifically this week I will be shocked if Ward is not the 2nd singles player (unless injured).
GB now currently have 3 players within the top 100 - In order they are Andy Murray, Aljaz Bedene and James Ward. It's been a long time coming for Ward, but he finally has the ranking that he deserves, well OK, he doesn't as this author believes he can get much higher. If he can keep this going, which has been a problem in the past - he thrives on the big stage, fortunately the next Davis Cup tie is only a couple of weeks away, then he can easily get into the top 50 at the very least. With Darren he has certainly improved dramatically in lhe last 18 months, and just needing consistent results will help. Being in the top 100 is actually quite a landmark as in addition to direct entry into US Open (and the other slams) it also gives direct entry into ATP main tour tournaments as not all the top players take part in the 250, 500 tournaments.
The GB Team has been announced, it will be the same team as in Glasgow, so Andy Murray, James Ward, Jamie Murray and Dom Inglot