No Englishmen in Wimbledon draw
There is always a first for everything, now in the rich history of Wimbledon the most elite tennis tournament on ATP calendar, the oldest Grand Slam, in 133 years of the tournament for the very first time, there will be not a single Englishman when the draws for Wimbledon 2010 are made.
3 English players were knocked out when Alex Bogdanovic, Daniel Evans and Josh Goodall were shown the door in the qualifying round, while James Ward was not awarded a wild card entry.
Ward who has been the upcoming English player in recent ATP tours was hopeful of getting his name in the big tournament, after his recent performances. He made it to the quarter-finals at Eastbourne just a few days back, and on his way beat 2 players who were in top 100.
The young man was understandably quite disappointed by not making it to the big event, but believes since he is only 23, age is on his side, and he has plenty of time to make it big in the grand slams.
Even though England will not be represented in Wimbledon, Great Britain will have 2 candidates as Andy Murray will be part of the draw. Andy Murray is seeded 4th in the event, and many believe this is his big chance to finally make it big, while his fellow countryman Scot Jamie Baker, will also be part of the draws after receiving a wild card entry into this year’s grand slam.
Ward who was denied a wild card may only have himself to blame, as he decided to play at Eastbourne, instead of playing qualifying matches for Wimbledon, as he was more than certain to sneak in with good performance at Eastbourne.
The big gamble obviously did not come off for Ward, and he was understandably very disappointed, Ward said that he has been consistently in good form in recent at events, and believed he deserved to get the wild card, purely on the fact that he has been in the top 250 for the last year and a half, but his ranking dropped just at the wrong time, as he lost points which he had earned Sarasota Challenger last year. Ward further added that he did all he could, but in the end the decision was beyond him.
Ward, became a professional at the age of 17, back in 2004,and has scalps of some big names to his credit, he has already beaten Spain's Feliciano Lopez, Rainer Schuettler(and world number 72 ) is also a well known player whom he recently beat to make it to the last 8 at the Aegon International in Eastbourne.
The other man who was expected to represent England in Wimbledon, Baker is also not in the top 250 players but fitness has been his downfall in recent times, he has been suffering from a blood disorder, while an ankle ligament has also plagued the Englishman in recent times.
David Lloyd who is Britain's former Davis Cup captain believes that decision to leave out Ward may have some vested interests in it, and the decision may have been taken just to save the blushes of Roger Draper, who is the Chief Executive of Lawn Tennis Association.
Lloyd said that there may be other reasons behind English players being overlooked, and Darper may have feared that all the English players will exit in the first round, which in result would have threatened his job, and Darper has been around for a while and he for sure does know the consequences of such scenarios.
Lloyd went on to say that he sympathised with Ward, as he has been performing consistently well, and deserved a chance to be part of a historic grand slam such as Wimbledon.
Now once again the hopes of whole of Britain will be riding on Andy Murray, who has been on the fringes for a while now, and will once again have all the home support behind him to become the first Brit to win Wimbledon in decades.
Tags: