August 2011 - James Ward

James Ward has won the AEGON Player of the Month award for August.

The British No.2 came into the month of August in red hot form having completed a great run at the AEGON Championships in June, helped GB win their Davis Cup tie in Braehead in July and finished runner up in the Lexington Challenger at the beginning of the US hard court season.

Ward was ranked at No.174 in the world on the first of August as he headed to Vancouver, Canada, for the $100k ATP Challenger event.

He was seeded fifth in the draw and after winning his first two rounds he came up against compatriot Alex Bogdanovic in the quarter-finals, with Boggo having beaten the top seed and world No.76 Yen-Hsun Lu in the round before.

But it was Ward who was victorious after three sets and then he went on to beat sixth seed and home favourite Vasek Pospisil of Canada in straight sets in the semi-finals.

Which meant Ward played former world No.15 Robby Ginepri in the final and the Briton triumphed in another straight sets victory, taking it 7-5, 6-4 to seal the championship title.

The win propelled the British No.2 to 144 in the world rankings and, two weeks later, after picking up further points for another Challenger and US Open qualifying Ward was ranked at a career high 139 in the world and that much closer to breaking the top 100 in the world.

Ward, who is 24 and from North London, is currently in Shanghai competing in a $50k Challenger, will soon turn his attentions to the Davis Cup by BNP Paribas as he travels to Glasgow next week.

The Briton, who should play in two live singles rubbers at Braehead Arena, will form an integral part of the AEGON GB Davis Cup Team in their promotional play-off tie against Hungary that begins on September 16th.