Talking of which, there's still nothing on the BBC Northampton site despite their sports editor getting back to me, but they must have mentioned it on the radio because the local press has not got in on the act, and they've even mentioned this site. That may explain the people coming on saying they know him (and his real nickname)!

See http://www.northamptonchron.co.uk/sport/Impressive-tennis-star-compared-to.4099782.jp  

Thankfully, this story has made one father happy (unlike the Dee story, where the story getting out was probably at least partly our fault but the headline that caused the trouble wasn't) - I'll leave you to click on the link to read the rest (it's basically a mish-mash of the stuff I sent the BBC), but it ends:

"His supreme effort prompted the British tennis web-site forum to acclaim his performance as 'probably the best tournament performance by an unranked British player since Andy Murray reached the quarter-finals of the Manchester Challenger as a 16 year-old in 2003'.

It also pointed out that the former Northampton School for Boys pupil had reached his first pro' final a year before Tim Henman!

Ward, the son of Northampton coach Richard Ward, is coming to the end of his second year on the Sanchez Casals Tennis Academy in Barcelona, but before winning his first match in the main draw had fallen agonisingly short of earning a first ATP point.

Ward senior said: "We are obviously thrilled with what Alex has achieved here and it means he will go into the 990s as a world ranked player." - impressive accuracy from his Dad there

People are probably going "what, Henman's going to win a Final in a year's time, haven't we heard of him before" (they mean a year younger, another snippet from here, and yes it is obvious enough )

Anyway, if it's made anyone in Northamptonshire curious enough to start following him, then we're doing our job.

Great language skills, guys - James offers four variations, while Steven shows off his multilingual abilities. Me, I'm not up to that, so I'm just going to turn it back to front - WOW!

its nice to see that it wasnt just a one week like the courts wonder

I've just spent the last five minutes trying to think of some awful representation of the acronym WOW and have failed miserably.

Therefore I shall skulk off and cry in the corner whilst I torture myself by watching clips of Gail Platt from Corrie looking all stern and sunken in.

MY EYES! MY EYES...

*well done to A-Ward though - see, you've got ME calling him it now!*

Great to see Ward not only having a stunning run last week but managing to back it up again this week and if he continues to play at this level it looks like we will have found a very talented junior who can play successfully on clay (RG 2009 winner!)

Dimitrov in the next round will be a good test to see where he is because he is a talented player and I'm surprised to see him ranked still outside the top 1000. Hopefully he can continue this run and make another QF, but I think this may be one step too far for him with Dimitrov's talent and fatigue setting in... hope I'm wrong though

Regarding Alex's nickname, I'm in favour of Sandy - not just because it's a short version of Alexander, but more importantly because he's kicked off his career on the red sand !

Having a great 2 weeks is the Wardinator :)

Interesting to see he thinks his favourite and best surface is clay. I think Andy Murray said that when he was breaking through and living at a Spanish academy.

Looks like his quarter of the draw is really opening up so another win or 2 may not be out of the question :)