James Ward bows out in semis but finds his feet at last

ASKED at the end of his match just how good he thought he could eventually be, James Ward didn't hesitate. "Very good," he said. The opinion was followed by a coy smile, but there is definitely a sense that the British No.2 now believes that.

"Why not? You know, I beat top players this week. It wasn't expected, but I always knew I could do it. Sometimes it does take a little while to come out. There are guys who stop playing their best tennis when they're 18, 19, 20, and there's other guys who kick on from 24, 25, 26."

Ward is 24 years old.

"If you look at the average age in the top 100, it's around 26. So I think it's different these days. You know, there are so many good players. Hopefully I can finish in the top 100 by the end of the year. It would be nice."

Having defeated the defending champion, Sam Querry, at Queen's Club last week, adding the American's scalp to that of world No.14 Stanislas Wawrinka and world No.54 Adrian Mannarino, he also ran another top 20 player, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, close yesterday. But it was a match too far for the British Davis Cup player.

In a semi-final he had no real right to have even dreamed about at the beginning of this tournament, he looked a bit nervous at the outset, dropping his first service game. As the jitters evaporated he settled down and matched the Frenchman for the remainder of the set. But unable to break back he lost that 6-3. There was a glimmer of hope in the second set when he finally found a way to capitalise on the Tsonga serve, taking a 3-0 advantage but the joy was short-lived, with the 26-year-old former Australian Open finalist coming back at him in the seventh game of the set to take the game back on serve and all the way to a tie-break.

Ward had endured a mammoth one of those on Friday, against Mannarino, squandering several match points before eventually losing the set.

Yesterday he had another sniff at winning the set but Tsonga held the mental and physical edge and put the match to bed 6-3 7-6 (9-7).

"Obviously, I'm a little disappointed. It's not nice to lose any time, it doesn't matter if it's a top player or not. But it's been a great week for me and I'm hoping to push on from here.

"I had set point so I was, obviously, quite close (to taking the match to a third set]. But he's where he is for a reason. He has a big second serve, he takes risk and today they came off for him. It was just too good from him today."

After an arduous week, albeit a massively enjoyable one, for the Londoner, the exertions maybe just took their toll.

"The crowd were behind him and he did everything to win but I think he was a bit tired," said Tsonga. "But I think he can play better."

Ward shares that view. Admitting he was a little tired mentally and physically after his big week he is still desperate to build on his performances. "Obviously, I'm not used to playing semi-finals of an ATP (tournament]. It will take a while to sink in. I don't have much time before I play again, against (Janko] Tipsarevic in Eastbourne (which starts tomorrow], so I have to just try to keep this roll going."

He will move up about 40 places in the ATP rankings thanks to his efforts this week but the boost in self-belief could be even more vital to his future. He has a wildcard into the main Wimbledon draw but it will be after the grass court season that he will be truly judged.

"Wimbledon is a bit more difficult than here. I don't know about expectation because my ranking is still going to go to about 175 so, realistically, I really shouldn't be playing Wimbledon at that ranking, it's a bonus to be playing there."

Ward has what others don't, a desire to work on all areas of his game and test himself in a bid to keep improving. It would be nice if he reaped the rewards because this week has given British tennis fans a taste of what it could be like with more than one braveheart to pin their hopes on.