Ward has stomach for a war of attrition

IT was almost so very typically British. James Ward willed himself towards the finishing line and, although he was hardly being peppered by winners or bombarded with quality from the other side of the net, he looked a broken man. The fear was that, having kept himself in the match, dragging his weary and worn limbs behind him as he tried to carve out one winning shot after another, he would do the typical British thing and contrive to turn a two-set advantage into defeat. Glorious failure, is after all something that British tennis has done very well over the decades.

But, while there is still a gaping chasm between the abilities of the British No 2 and the man ahead of him in the home nations’ rankings, there is at least a glimmer of Andy Murray’s grit and tenacity in the Londoner. And, despite throwing up at the side of the court, suffering cramps in his legs and sustaining an ankle injury, all of which curtailed his movement and etched a semi-permanent grimace on his face, Ward stayed in the match long enough for his Hungarian opponent, world No 262 Attila Balazs, to succumb to both cramps and his rival’s superiority, the Brit finally emerging with a 6-4, 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 triumph over adversity.

“It was a tough match with some long rallies,” said the defeated foe. “I had been hoping that he couldn’t fight any more but he is a big fighter and, at home in the Davis Cup, he did everything so I wasn’t surprised.”

Visibly struggling, there was a fear that Ward may have to throw in the towel and concede the match but the Briton said that was never even contemplated. “I’m playing for my country. I had to keep going. That’s the first time I have ever cramped on a tennis court and I didn’t know what to do,” said the 24-year-old. “It’s a strange feeling to come off court and be sick quite alot and then have to go straight back on or have to forfeit.”

Even before Balazs had won the third set and the physical problems emerged, the outcome had often looked questionable. From the outset there were niggling doubts. Ward revealed that was mainly down the nerves brought on by expectation. Although ranked more than 100 places above the top singles exponent in the Hungarian ranks, Ward got off to an unconvincing start.A player who has enjoyed his best-ever year on tour, moving into the top 150 and reaching the semi-finals of an ATP event, at the AEGON Championships at Queen’s Club in the summer, he was shy of his best and the pit-a-pat tennis was a lower calibre than he is capable of. It meant that the match wasn’t one which would ever be remembered for the quality of tennis on show. But in the Europe/Africa Zone Group II promotion play-off, the determination of the Brit was the telling factor.

With World No 4 Murray taking to court in the second match against a student with no world ranking, the opening rubber was always going to be the key fixture on the opening day of this Davis Cup tie as the host nation attempted to accelerate to a 2-0 lead to render this afternoon’s doubles match the deciding tie. Despite a vocal backing from the Braehead crowd, Ward failed to settle.

He eventually converted his third break point in the third game, before rallying again at the end of the first set to save a break point against him with an ace and then chasing down a drop shot to wrap up the first set.

In the second set he got the decisive breaks in the fifth and seventh games, although Balasz retrieved one of those breaks in the eighth game. “I started to feel a bit sick at 4-2 [in that set]. Then at 5-2 I was feeling sick and starting to feel a bit of cramp coming on. I went back out to serve but I was just putting it in [court] and seeing what happened. When it was 5-4 I had to leave court because I didn’t want to throw up out there. I threw up big time.” Back on court, he showed he had the stomach to overcome the nerves and illness, hlding serve to give himself a two-set adavantage. The third set, which was bedevilled with cramps, went to the Hungarian but the tactics employed by the challenger were eventually his undoing. “He wanted to make the points last as long as possible,” said the 24-year-old Englishman, “which in the end didn’t work for him because he cramped.”

By the final couple of service games it was a war of attrition. But it was a battle Ward won, winning that fourth set 6-4 to give Britain the start they had hoped for.