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Camden Sports - by GERARD MEAGHER
Published: 11 June 2009

Bouncing back: British No 4 James Ward

Wildcard James in Wimbledon pledge

TENNIS ace James Ward has vowed to bounce back in time for Wimbledon following his first-round defeat to Marcos Baghdatis at the Aegon Championships on Monday.
The 22-year-old British number four, who was brought up in Eversholt Street, Euston, has been in excellent form this season and has reached a career-high world ranking of 220.
But he was no match for 2006 Australian Open finalist and Wimbledon semi-finalist Baghdatis, as he slumped to a straight sets 6-2, 6-3 defeat at Queen’s.
And while Ward admitted his premature departure would be difficult to stomach, he is adamant he will have his day in the sun this summer after being handed a Wimbledon wildcard on Monday.
“Some days you just don’t see the ball and you don’t really get the feel for it very well and that’s what happened to me,” said Ward.
“It wasn’t a case of being intimidated by playing against someone who used to be ranked so highly because I’ve faced people like that before. It’s just that I didn’t really get going. He returned well and I couldn’t really cope with it.
“I guess the main thing I have to learn is how to deal with the big points better, like when I’m break point down. I think I went for it a bit too much on my first serve as well.”
Ward plans to make amends for his early exit from Queen’s in the coming weeks at the Aegon International in Eastbourne, before setting his sights on Wimbledon.
“Hopefully I can learn from this and put things right at Eastbourne and at Wimbledon. I believe I have earnt my wildcard at Wimbledon, not on this performance, but I have shown good enough recent form to get there.
I have to realise that I can’t go out there and win every single day. If I did, I would be Rafael Nadal.”
Life assurance and pensions company Aegon is lead partner of British Tennis and is backing the sport at all levels, from grassroots to world class tennis events. For tickets and further info visit www.lta.org.uk

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