FAVOURITE
SURFACE: Clay
SHOT: Backhand
COACH
Ben Harren
AGE37
HEIGHT188 cm
PLAYSRight-handed
BACKHANDTwo-handed
TURNED PRO2006
FAVOURITE
SURFACE:Clay
SHOT:Backhand
COACH
Ben Harren
Get to know James Ward
About
James Ward is a British tennis player from London with a well-established career on the singles circuit. First appearing on the professional circuit in 2007 at the Valencia Open, Ward became a fixture of tennis in the UK, both as a member of the winning Great Britain team at the 2015 Davis Cup and as the former British No.2.
Ward has competed at all levels on the singles circuit, competing at each Grand Slam tournament, including a third round effort at The Championships, Wimbledon in 2015. More recently, Ward is set to join Orlando Storm as a player in the mixed-gender World Team Tennis.
Ward retired from professional tennis at the end of 2021.
QUICK-FIRE FACTS
- Nickname: Wardy
- Place of birth: London
- Lives: London
- Trains: National Tennis Centre/Wimbledon
- Favourite tournament: Wimbledon
- Likes: Hobbies include watching and playing football, Arsenal supporter.
- Family: Father, Jim, is a taxi driver. Mother is Tina, sister is Lauren.
TENNIS BEGINNINGS
Starting playing tennis aged 11. Spent four years training at Equelite Juan Carlos Ferrero Academy, in Villena near Valencia. In February 2009 at Roehampton, took part in an unofficial play-off competition to earn a place in the British Davis Cup team against Ukraine. One play-off match resulted in a 63 62 67(3) 26 21-19 loss to Chris Eaton that lasted six hours, 40 minutes...His former Spanish coach, Toni Colom, arranged for him to spend time in Mallorca as Rafael Nadal's hitting partner in December 2009...
Tennis Career
Runner up in January’s Rennes Open ATP Challenger event.
After losing eight matches in a row coming into Leon ATP Challenger in April, turned his luck around reaching SF before losing to Rola 7-6 final set; won a round in each of his next two events to rise up to No.173 – his best ranking since 2016 prior to right knee surgery; On the grass, reached third round of Surbiton (d. Jubb & No.12 seed Stakhovsky; Qualified for both Queens and Eastbourne, falling 1R each time.
In February returned to action having missed all but two of previous 17 months due to right knee injury and surgery with a ranking of 845, won 12 of 15 matches by May to get back to 403. Also reached the SF or Chengdu, Cassis and F of Jinan to finish 2018 ranked 186.
Underwent right knee surgery in August 2017 and was off the tour for eight months. Best year of his career was 2015 where he reached the third round of Wimbledon (d. WR-45 Vesely before falling to Pospisil 8-6 in the fifth); result enabled him to crack the Top 100 rankings after 11 years as a pro; Later in 2015 won ATP Challenger in Bangalore and reached the SF the following week of Pune. After reaching the QFs of ATP Challengers in Tallahassee and Manchester, won only one of his next 10 matches and was off the Tour for nine months due to rehabbing right knee injury; played five events (four in a row on grass) during the summer of 2017 before deciding to undergo surgery.
