Two young Gunners with an impressive arsenal . . .
THEIRS is a life less ordinary. It involves punishing beach runs out in Miami and intense 20-minute bursts on a pain machine called a Verso-climber, but in another way the budding bromance between Andy Murray and James Ward is very mundane indeed. The basis of their relationship appears to be slagging each other off about football and their taste in music.
Let’s start with the last one first. While the Scot used his blog on the BBC yesterday to out his fellow 28-yearold, who faces Vasek Pospisil in the Wimbledon third round today, as a fan of Taylor Swift, this son of a London cabbie, albeit one who has never learned to drive, claimed exactly the opposite.
“In Miami at the end of last year it was me, him and Kim most days in the apartment and there were two songs on,” recalled Ward, who will enter the world’s top 100 players for the first time on the strength of his performances in this tournament. “Taylor Swift, which he and Kim liked, and an Ariana Grande one which I preferred. It was a very sad little argument we had going on. I always said Ariana Grande was a lot better looking, but Kim and Andy both disagreed. Since then it has been an ongoing argument. Every time Kim sees a bad picture of Ariana Grande she will send it to me and say ‘see, I told you Taylor Swift was a lot better’!”
Then there is the football, where both men lay claim to be supporters of Arsenal. Some, however, are more die-hard than others. Two of Ward’s best pals are Kieran Gibbs and Bacary Sagna, now of Manchester City. One of a number of text messages he has received this fortnight came from Arsenal powerbroker Ivan Gazidis.
“I always call him a TV fan,” said Ward. “He [Murray] never comes to the matches – even when we’re both in London. I always say to him ‘right, I’ll sort it out. You don’t even have to call up and get tickets. I’ll sort it.’ And he’s, like, ‘aaw, it’s too far to drive, and after the match I’ve got to get home’. He’s always got an excuse.
“But he’s always the first one during a match messaging and talking about the game,” he added. “I say to him ‘don’t bother talking about it anymore. If you don’t want to come to the games when you’re in London, there’s no point’. We’ve had this conversation a few times.”
While his football pals are generally on holiday – Gibbs may be there on Court No.1 today – there has been no shortage of goodwill being poured in Ward’s direction. “There were 42 messages when I woke up this morning,” he said. “I got a nice one from Ivan Gazidis, so that was nice. I don’t think I will have a problem getting a ticket now. He said ‘everyone at Arsenal is supporting you, we’ve been watching you’.
“I’ve met him a few times from a couple of years ago when I mentioned I was an Arsenal fan at Wimbledon, he invited me as his guest into the directors’ box and since then I’ve met him at a few different events. We’ve sort of kept in touch. Wenger is always on holiday and he missed it by a day or two. Everyone’s on holiday. It’s a joke. Kieran’s away, and Bac is with his missus in Miami.”
All joking aside, Murray has been a huge source of help to his training block cohort, but Ward knows his assistance would run dry pretty quickly if the pair met in the quarter-finals.
“We have never played each other, so who knows how it is going to be?” he said.
“It would be nice to be sitting here in a few matches’ time discussing whether I will be talking to Andy or not. But I have these other boys to worry about in the meantime.”