Hold to 15, couple of aces.

JW 3-1*

I see Authom v Puetz has gone to a final set tie break

More solid backhand play, Ward breaks to 30 and takes the match 3-6, 6-1, 6-1.

Good to see him end his 4 match losing streak

Easy win - good confidence booster especially with Davis Cup coming soon.

Authom won the tie break -(in Alex's side of draw).

GSM James 3-6 6-1 6-1

And I must say James played better and better as the match wore on. Some excellent stuff there, especially off the backhand. Awful first set against a completely overmatched opponent. He had a decent serve for a while until James started timing it, average backhand, terrible forehand. UE after UE off it. How do players like this reach the top 300?

Confidence booster indeed there.

Of course they do, Indy!

But even in that first set James was hitting some lovely shots, just throwing in lots of UEs as well. He had 1 bad service game, and he took about a set to start timing his returns......but there were good things to admire as well.

I just couldn't see anything positive on the offensive front from his opponent at any point in the match.....except that he had a heavy flat ball on serve, which took some time to get used too......but then even that became a huge liability after 4 or 5 service games. Plus he was a yard slow to the ball and often out of position or not attempting to run for wide balls......and looked out of condition.

I believe with the top 250-300 players you should always see something positive about them, even on bad days......perhaps a great looking FH, BH, serve, volleys, movement, consistency, point construction......at least one of the above at some point...alas for Mr Zivkovic, at least for today, none of the above applied.

Updated with new rankings, etc:

L32: James Ward WR 208 beat Denis Zivkovic (USA) WR 292 (= CH) by 3-6 6-1 6-1

L32: Jamie Baker WR 209 v (1) Vasek Pospisil (CAN ) WR 129 (CH 85 last Jul) - 5th on Central after 14.00 GMT on Tuesday
L32: Alex Bogdanovic WR 310 v (Q) Hiroki Moriya (JPN) WR 175 (CH 170 last Dec) - 6th on Court 1 after 14.00 GMT on Tuesday

L16: James Ward WR 208 v (3) Yuichi Sugita (JPN) WR 142 (CH 116 last Nov) or (Q) Maxime Authom (BEL) WR 157

James beat Sugita 2 & 3 in the West Lakes Challenger earlier this year but got thrashed 1 & 2 by Authom (who would have been the 4th seed had he been a direct entrant!) in Indian Wells qualifying last year.