Tennis: Ward aiming for place in the top 100

JAMES WARD has set his sights on breaking into the world's top 100 after wrapping up a 5-0 victory for Great Britain's Davis Cup team over Turkey at Eastbourne.

Singles victories for Ward and Jamie Baker on Friday and doubles pair Colin Fleming and Ken Skupski on Saturday meant yesterday's matches were dead rubbers, but Baker and Ward maintained Britain's dominance of the tie with straight-sets wins.

It was Britain's first 5-0 success since 2001 and their first of any kind in nearly three years - a run that had seen them slump to the brink of relegation to Europe/Africa Zone Group III, the lowest tier of the competition. That never looked likely once Ward defeated Turkish No.?1 Marsel Ilhan, a player ranked almost 200 places above him, on Friday.

The 23-year-old remains outside the top 300, but said: "Hopefully I'll get to the top 100 as soon as possible but there's a process to go through and a lot of hard work to be done to reach that stage. But I'm putting the hard work in and hopefully the next few weeks in the States will be good ones."