Hip ruins Murray’s plans as Ward lives Wimbledon dream
Champion pulls out of Hurlingham exhibition World No855 books his place in the main draw
Andy Murray’s sore hip is causing further complications ahead of Wimbledon, forcing him to pull out of yesterday’s scheduled exhibition match at the Hurlingham Club. But while the world No1 fretted over his disrupted build-up, the world No855 – Northampton’s Alex Ward – was celebrating the biggest win of his career.
Ward, who is 26, fought back from a set down to beat the former top-50 player Teymuraz Gabashvili at the Wimbledon qualifying tournament in Roehampton. Statistically, he has come from even further back than Marcus Willis did last year, because Willis was ranked No772 at the time. But the prize is the same: a place in the main draw next week.
“I’ve never won a match before in qualifying,” said a breathless Ward, who was given a wild card into Wimbledon’s main draw last year. “Before this I had lost four times. It just feels amazing.
“I played Wimbledon last year, but since then I had six months off with a problem with the tendons in my wrist. I came back at the end of January, but I’ve been on a losing streak. But I came here and just got better and better, and something has just clicked. It’s come together for the best tournament.” He becomes the lowest-ranked Grand Slam qualifier since Mark Knowles made it to Wimbledon from a ranking of 1,122 in 1998.
Of the three Britons in the final round of qualifying, Ward was the only one to make it through. Eighteen-year-old Jay Clarke will be particularly frustrated, after holding a two-set lead over Austria’s Sebastian Ofner before losing 2-6, 6-7, 6-4, 6-4, 6-1.
And then there was Willis, who was looking for a repeat of last year’s fairy tale, but faced a difficult draw against world No 117 Illya Marchenko. He had aggravated his knee in a late-night battle with Liam Broady on Wednesday, and was unable to deliver his best in a 6-4, 6-1, 7-6 defeat.
“I’m happy for Alex,” said Willis. “He’s obviously good enough and he deserves to be in the main draw. I was playing on adrenalin but I finished the match and I did my best.”
As for Murray, the Wimbledon champion has played only one match on grass this season
– a straight-sets defeat by the world No90, Jordan Thompson, in the first round at Queen’s.
Murray had planned to add an exhibition against Lucas Pouille on Tuesday, but pulled out of that with the first intimations of his hip problem. And on Wednesday he said: “My hip is still sore and I need to rest it today, and likely tomorrow.”
Last night, Murray’s coach Ivan Lendl assuaged fears that he was in any danger of missing Wimbledon and suggested the Scot might practise there today. “We’ll see what the weather is like,” said Lendl. “If the weather is good I am sure we will practise.”
Murray’s hip is the sort of injury that he might have played through if he had to, but when he consulted doctors on Tuesday, after his most recent practice session with Grigor Dimitrov, they recommended two to three days’ rest.
“I’m sure that this is a challenge that is not unknown to him,” said Murray’s old rival Novak Djokovic, who beat Donald Young yesterday in Eastbourne. “He has faced these kind of circumstances before.
“But he’s a champion. He’s proven so many times that he’s one of the best players in the world. You’ve got to take this in consideration rather than just focusing on this very present moment.”
But the omens are not encouraging. Murray has never previously gone into Wimbledon with just a single grasscourt match behind him. In the circumstances, he had better hope that this morning’s draw is kind to him. Were he to land a firstround tester against one of the more dangerous unseeded players – Kevin Anderson, Nicolas Mahut or Jiri Vesely spring to mind – all bets would be off.