Week 18 - Challenger ($50,000) - An-Ning, China (Clay)

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

RE: Week 18 - Challenger ($50,000) - An-Ning, China (Clay)

LHarvey89 · Social player

Struggling to sleep so thought I'd get up and watch Ward's match against Chuhan Wang. Ward was very comfortable throughout, won in straight sets, 6-4, 6-2.

As stated, Chuhan Wang has had a few encounters with some of our lower ranked British players in recent years (and months), losing all five in straight sets. Was top 25 in the Junior rankings, mind, and you can see how he is capable of pulling off the odd upset. He has a habit of starting slow, especially on serve, and then getting into a rhythm that makes him difficult to break. Did exactly that last week against Victor Baluda.

Anyway, Ward started very lively, broke to 15 in the second game and was comfortable on serve throughout the first; just that one break on his way to taking the set 6-4. He was initially putting plenty of pressure on Wang's serve, but the Chinaman started to see out games in comfortable fashion.

This continued into the early stages of the second set, with both players serving out easily. Ward then got the all important break at 2-2 in the second - Wang was *30-0 up and proceeded to lose the next four points to be broken to 30. That was that, with Ward winning five games on the spin to take the second set 6-2.

Served well throughout and was completely untroubled until he afforded Wang three break points in the final hold (holds were to: 15, love, 15, 15, love, love, love, 15, 40). Seven aces and won 93% of his first serves.

A comfortable start to the week.

korriban · Challenger level

L32: (Q) James Ward WR 213 beat (WC) Wang Chuhan (CHN) WR 757 6-4 6-2

L16: (Q) James Ward WR 213 vs [4] Josellin Ouanna (FRA) WR 158

Steven - can you please update the link on the top 25 table to the MD from the Qualies Draw when you post James' win. Thank you

Shhh · Challenger level

Thanks LHarvey, nice report smile

steven · Tennis legend

LHarvey - thanks for the report

korriban - changed

Ouanna's career high is 88 (in 2009) but today's win was only his 2nd main draw win this year, he is 0-2 in ATP main draws and 2-3 in Challengers so far in 2013.

Wardy's win makes him the 2nd Brit to break the 100 point barrier this year (more than twice as many as any other Brit except Andy) and it looks like he has already done enough to get back in the top 250, or be right on the edge.

korriban · Challenger level

....except Ed.

steven · Tennis legend

Doh! Must not do updates when still half asleep

korriban · Challenger level

Hold on. Ito was an unseeded QWC late entry. He lurks in James' half and on both current ranking and Career High woukd be the de facto #1 seed.

-- Edited by korriban on Wednesday 1st of May 2013 05:57:43 AM

Doonan · Intermediate Club Player

Ward lost the first set 6-2 but is *3-1 up in the second after taking his first bp.

Doonan · Intermediate Club Player

And wins the second set 6-3 with an ace. Still only 1 bp created though.

Doonan · Intermediate Club Player

Break for Ward to make it *2-1 in the 3rd set. In a serve dominated match that could prove crucial. 2 from 2 on bps.

Doonan · Intermediate Club Player

Another break - now *4-1.

Doonan · Intermediate Club Player

And Ward wins 2-6 6-3 6-2, good recovery after losing the first set. Potential to do some damage here.

Shhh · Challenger level

Doonan wrote:
And Ward wins 2-6 6-3 6-2, good recovery after losing the first set. Potential to do some damage here.

Very true, Ouanna was the only seed left in Ward's half of the draw after the first round. I don't mean to tempt fate but, when James won a clay court challenger before, didn't that come as a qualifier as well?

steven · Tennis legend

The ATP rule (VII.7.11.A.1) is that the main draw must be made not before 12.00 US Eastern time on the Friday before the tournament and, more importantly, not later than 10 pm local time 2 days before the first day's play unless they get prior written permission to do otherwise.

That rule effectively ensures that it always gets done in ATPs and Challengers before qualifying finishes.

Futures are not subject to the same rules and, as RJA implies, it seems to be a bit random - some countries tend to do early draws and some tend to wait, but there isn't a 100% correlation with the country holding the tournament.

It seems fairer to wait in order to avoid situations like this, but I guess the idea is that the events (and the ATP) get plenty of chance to publicise the R1 matches and when they are going to be played, which is probably important for main tour events and in countries that make a big event of their Challengers ... which means most countries other than the UK. Even the US manages it (very well, in fact) - e.g. look at that pic from Tallahassee last night and see if you can imagine there being that many people taking an interest in a R1 Challenger doubles match in the UK (outside the grass court season, anyway)

-- Edited by steven on Thursday 2nd of May 2013 11:33:28 AM