Ward out of singles and doubles in China

By Philip James

Di Wu def James Ward 6-4, 6-3

British number two James Ward had a disappointing day at the office today exiting both the singles and doubles draw of the Kun-Ming Challenger in China.

First he lost in straight sets to Di Wu in the singles second round and then he and partner Ruben Bemelmans were soundly beaten in same round of the doubles.

Las week Ward reached the final of the An-Ning Challenger, another Chinese red clay tournament, but he could not repeat the run this week.

His opponent, the 21-year-old world number 173 lost in the first round in An-Ning but prior to that had won two clay court Futures tournaments on the trot.

In the first set, both men punished the other’s second serve and created break chances, Ward breaking twice but Wu three times to edge the first set.

In the second set Ward’s first serve percentage dropped to a disastrous 33% which Wu capitalised on to break twice more and take the set and match 6-4, 6-3 in an hour and ten minutes.

Ranked 37 places below Wu, on paper this is a match Ward was not favourite to win but beating higher ranked opponents is what he needs to do (and did do last week) to climb the rankings.

Ward was soon back on court for his doubles match against Go Soeda and Yasutaka Uchiyama but did not fare any better, losing 6-0 6-1 in under half an hour.