Will we ever hear about James Ward again?

Every so often at the Queens Tournament or Wimbledon, a British player that isn't Andy Murray gets some headlines. In 2007, Alex Bogdanovic reached the third round at Queens, led Roddick by a set then uncharacteristically let the lead slide. In 2008, Chris Eaton won a round at Wimbledon.  This week, James Ward got the attention for reaching the semi-finals at Queens. Usually in these situations the player themselves start talking excitedly about the top 100, people start talking about a possible resurgence in British tennis, then we never hear of them again. Alex Bogdanovic stalled at 108 in the rankings, Chris Eaton at 317. So what will become of James Ward?

We should begin with the positives first of all. What James Ward achieved is considerably more impressive than the average headline grabber. He got into a winning position against Wawrinka, and rather than go on to lose but get praised for his plucky efforts, held his nerve to win. He got into a winning position against Querrey, and rather than go on to lose but get praised for his plucky efforts, held his nerve to win. He got into a winning position against Mannarino, almost completely bottled things, but eventually held his nerve to win. Only against Tsonga did he go on to lose but get praised for his plucky efforts. Victories against three players in the top 100 is impressive.

Secondly, this is not his first impressive run on grass. Last year at Eastbourne he beat both Lopez and Schuttler in a run to the quarter finals. He does appear to have some sort of pedigree on this surface, and a reasonable amount of bottle too. In his only appearance at Wimbledon in 2009, he achieved the usual British result of a comprehensive first round defeat, but this was against Verdasco.

On the downside, he is already 24. In fact, he is about three months older than Andy Murray. Not too many players make a breakthrough at that age and very few do it from 214 odd in the world. Secondly, holding a match point against Ryan Harrison in the French Open qualifiers aside, he has done very little this year. He appears to have lost to the world number 870 at one point. If he can only get results on grass, he won't really get too far.

                                                          Grass

Ward did look fairly impressive at times during Queens. His serve was reliable and his mentality was excellent, particularly after blowing 7 match points in the quarters. However, things won't be easy from here. He has been drawn against Janko Tipsarevic in Eastbourne, which will be a very tough match for him. He has a wildcard into Wimbledon which should provide an opportunity for further ranking points, before he returns to the grind of the challenger circuit. The issue will be whether he can find the suitable motivation to reach his stated aim of the top 100 when he is playing the world number 222 in a challenger in Kazakhstan.

Going by previous experience, we will never hear of James Ward again. Until a newspaper asks "Whatever happened to James Ward?" in 3 years, and we all learn he never quite kicked on. At which stage we'll all be getting excited over Oliver Golding going a set up against a top 20 player before losing but getting praised for his plucky efforts. I'll be happy to be proved wrong though.