By Philip James
James Ward(Q) def Chuhan Wang (W)6-4, 6-2; An-Ning
Jamie Delgado/Andreas Siljestrom(2) def Farrukh Dustov/Adrian Ungur 7-7, 6-3; Tunis
It was a successful day for the British men as James Ward and Jamie Delgado both made round two of their Challenger tournaments.
London-born Ward had to come through qualifying to reach the main draw of the clay-court tournament in An-ning, China, winning two straight-set matches as second seed.
The 26-year-old British number two then faced Chuhan Wang, a wildcard entrant, in round one today.
Ranked 508 places above the 21-year-old Chinaman, Ward would have expected to win this match handily and so it proved.
Ward’s serve was too much for Wang to handle, as he dropped only three points on serve.
Wang held his own in the first set, fending off numerous break points as Ward won the set with a single break of serve.
In the second set Ward was more clinical with his opportunities, taking each of the two break points he created.
There a brief threat of a fight-back when Wang suddenly made inroads into Ward’s serve to fashion three break points of his own.
But Ward, ranked 261st in the world, saved all three and ran out to win the match 6-4, 6-2 in an hour and five minutes.
Next up for the Brit is fourth seed Josselin Ouanna; the Frenchman is ranked 103 places above Ward but is the kind of opponent Ward will have to start beating if he is to climb the rankings.
Meanwhile at the Tunis open in Tunisia, Delgado and his doubles partner, Sweden’s Andreas Siljestrom, also enjoyed success on the ‘red stuff.’
Seeded second, the pair had to fight back from an early break against Farrukh Dustov and Adrian Ungur.
When the Uzbeki-Romanian combo, ranked 805 and 452 in doubles respectively, served for the first set at 5-4 it looked like an upset might be on the cards.
But from there Delgado and Siljestrom (ranked 75th and 122nd) broke twice in succession to win the first set 7-5 and started the second set with another break.
The teams exchanged a further break but Delgado and Siljestrom were not to relinquish the winning position, holding out for a 7-5, 6-3 win in an hour and 15 minutes.