Week 20 - Futures F19 (10k) - Balaguer, Spain - unranked Alex Ward's wonder run!

DJ · County player

RE: Week 20 - Futures F19 (10k) - Balaguer, Spain

steven · Tennis legend

Stunned! I can't think of a better tournament than this by an unranked Brit This must be one of the best performances for years, if not ever, by an unranked Brit since a 16-year-old Andy Murray won a couple of matches in the Manchester Challenger five years ago.

Bautista had thrashed new GB no. 25 Matt Illingworth 0 & 3 just two months ago, though he did lose 3 & 3 to David Rice in the same month, so the young Brits seem to have his number!

L16: (Q) Alexander Ward UNR beat (3) Roberta Bautista-Agut (ESP) WR 485 by 4 & 5 biggrin

QF: (Q) Alexander Ward UNR v (5) Carlos Rexach-Itoiz (ESP) WR 526

A former top 400 player, Rexach-Itoiz has been having a relatively lean time recently and this week is his first Futures QF in 16 tournaments and his first back to back wins he got through qualifying for a Future in January, though he was reaching semis and Finals last summer.

He hasn't played a Brit since 2006, when he beat Richard Brooks 4 & 1, but previously to that, he had beaten James Ward twice (a 3-setter and a 4 & 1) in 2006 and Morgan Phillips 2 & 3 in 2005.

goldfish · Futures qualifying

Very good news. Looking forward to following your progress.

XCW4EVA · County player

Absolutely stunned by that result, not dropped a set this whole week. He must be chuffed to bits! Good Luck for the next one, fatigue may kick in soon tho bleh

-- Edited by XCW4EVA at 10:33, 2008-05-16

Drew · May 16, 2008

Ward won 6-2 6-1

Is this for real ?

steven · Tennis legend

You've got to be joking!

Maybe the Spanish calling him J Ward on their site wasn't a typo after all.

steven · Tennis legend

QF: (Q) Alexander Ward UNR beat (5) Carlos Rexach-Itoiz (ESP) WR 526 by 2 & 1 biggrin

That's better than James Ward and Morgan Phillips ever managed against this former top 400 player and the scoreline is truly astonishing! You'd think his opponent must have been ill if he hadn't done the same to the 3rd seed in the previous round.

SF: (Q) Alexander Ward UNR v (7) Jordi Marse-Vidri (ESP) WR 596

Marse-Vidri has already won a Future in Turkey this year, where he stuffed Edward Seator 1 & 0 in R2 the following week. He beat Matt Illingworth 3 & 3 last year as well, so this looks like a tough one. Then again, so did the last two!

I wish we had the inside track on what's been happening here, the scores are almost unbelievable.

Drew · May 16, 2008

steven wrote:
You've got to be joking!

Maybe the Spanish calling him J Ward on their site wasn't a typo after all.

Quite stunning...what will his ranking be ?

He plays Marse-Vidri in the SF

steven · Tennis legend

Around 1200.

imoen · Admin: Moderator+Tennis Legend

That's phenomenal. Alex Ward is doing so well!!

Looking ahead to rankings.

Counted tournaments now includes all tournaments played. Assuming that doesn't include qualies I make Alex at 2 (according to his ITF profile).

4 points (SF) from 2 tournaments is 1193 this week.
8 points (F) from 2 tournaments is 991 this week.
12 points (W) from 2 tournaments is 872 this week.

So Ward is one match away from breaking the top 1000! (and coincidentaly also one match away from getting into the GB top25 and onto Steven's table proper).

steven · Tennis legend

Here's Alexander's full run to the semis (and an SE for next week too, I assume!

) all in one post. Awesome!

QR1: Alexander Ward UNR beat (q9) Abel Hernandez-Aguila ESP WR 1473 by 0 & 2 biggrin

QR2: Alexander Ward UNR beat Jordi Munoz-Abreu (ESP) UNR by 1 & 1 smile

FQR: Alexander Ward UNR beat A Romero-Torres (ESP) WR 1342 by 3 & 3 biggrin

L32: (Q) Alexander Ward UNR beat David Estruch (ESP) WR 1023 by 2 & 3 biggrin

L16: (Q) Alexander Ward UNR beat (3) Roberta Bautista-Agut (ESP) WR 485 by 4 & 5 biggrin

QF: (Q) Alexander Ward UNR beat (5) Carlos Rexach-Itoiz (ESP) WR 526 by 2 & 1 biggrin

SF: (Q) Alexander Ward UNR v (7) Jordi Marse-Vidri (ESP) WR 596

That would be five ranked players he's thrashed in straights this week ... (Bautista-Agut did make those sets close, admittedly)

-- Edited by steven at 19:20, 2008-05-16

Salmon · Tennis legend

This can't be true!

-- Edited by Greenleaf at 19:23, 2008-05-16

Drew · May 16, 2008

well just to jinx him i am going for a 3 set win in the SF !

steven · Tennis legend

A bit of a find - Alex Ward's audio diary from last year on BBC Radio Northamptonshire - quite funny, but good stuff

http://www.bbc.co.uk/northamptonshire/content/articles/2007/09/14/alex_ward_northants_tennis_player_diary_feature.shtml

Drew · May 16, 2008

Greenleaf wrote:

This can't be true!

-- Edited by Greenleaf at 19:23, 2008-05-16

I had to check the pdf 3 times before i posted the score !!