1st serve, Petrovic smacks it for a winner 0-15
Petrovic can't return 15-15
Strong 1st serve, Petrovic eventually nets 30-15
Rally Ward hits forehand winner, only to be called out 30-30
Strong 1st serve, Petrovic can't get any sort of return on it 40-30
2nd serve, Petrovic hits long, GSM Ward 0-6, 7-6, 6-0

I think James deserved to win that last set, you know!

Well done! I think....

I think we can call James a slow starter in that match - he'll need to sort himself out from the first point to win tomorrow, but this has to be a fantastic chance of an overall tournament win (he's probably the joint favourite with tomorrow's opponent), ahead of some much bigger points potential over the next couple of weeks.

Come on!

Thanks for the commentary!

What an absolutely crazy match. Strange that both players only turned up at the same time for one set out of three.

Am I right in thinking a win here (yes, getting ahead of myself of course) would be enough for top 200?

Great news!

SF: (Q) James Ward WR 261 beat Yang Tsung-Hua (TPE) WR 274 by 6-4, 5-7, 6-2

F: (Q) James Ward WR 261 v Marton Fucsovics (HUN) WR 383

Great news indeed, equalling his best points haul of the last 12 months.  Should take him up to around 220 in the ranking and 195 if he wins the final.  Dino has won a load of matches this week, but three of his wins in the main draw have been three setters, so it hasn't been easy. A great performance on his least favoured surface though.   If he loses, he'll have the opportunity for immediate revenge. They play in the 1st round in Kun Ming.

Steve

 

Excellent news and a great chance to take a title(we said that earlier this year). All we really want is James to be more consistent at this level, so i'd much prefer if he could win a couple of rounds next week.

stevemcqueen wrote:

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Great news indeed, equalling his best points haul of the last 12 months.  Should take him up to around 220 in the ranking and 195 if he wins the final.  Dino has won a load of matches this week, but three of his wins in the main draw have been three setters, so it hasn't been easy. A great performance on his least favoured surface though.   If he loses, he'll have the opportunity for immediate revenge. They play in the 1st round in Kun Ming.

Steve

 

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Great win from Wardy to reach his first Challenger Final on *red* clay. Remarkable that both clay Finals have been reached as a qualifier, albeit a qualifier who would have got in direct had he entered on time here.

Re. his ranking, I make it about 210 if he loses and about 190 is he wins - looking on the live ranking lists to check whether I had missed something, I thought maybe they had forgotten to add the 3 qualifying points but they seem to be 6 points out, so I assume they have already taken off his 6 points from Rome Ch. last year, which are due off on Monday week. 

Anyway, it's a real pity the RG qualifying cut was based on this week's rankings because if it has been based on last week's or next week's, he'd have ended up getting in for sure.