Home cheer as Ward lands biggest payday

AFTER four magical days at Wimbledon, British journeyman James Ward was guaranteed to pocket the biggest cheque of his career – a princely sum of at least US$120,000 (RM470,000) for reaching the third round.

The amount was almost US$30,000 (RM115,000) more than what he had earned during the rest of 2015.

But it was ranking points, rather than money, that the 28yearold wildcard really wanted after his victory over Jiri Vesely meant the home nation would have three singles players in the third round for the first time since 2002.

“It's great. Obviously ranking goes up. Into third round of Wimbledon, I can't ask for anything more at the moment,” said Ward, who is guaranteed to break into the world's top 100 after joining Andy Murray and Heather Watson in round three.

“It's (being in the top 100) something you work for throughout your whole career.

“Everyone's got bills to pay. I'm no different to anyone else in this tournament who is in this position.

“But it's not really something I've thinking about. More worried about my ranking and achieving my goals than the prize money.”

After years of toiling in the lowertier challenger circuit, playing on dusty courts in farflung places such as South Korea, Japan, Australia, Uzbekistan to name just a few Ward is finally reaping the benefit of training with Murray.

“It's always a good help spending time with him ... which I've been lucky enough to do. Good habits rub off on you if you spend enough time around someone,” said Ward. — Reuters