James Ward said a very rude word when he saw the Draw on Friday morning. “Oh, botheration,” he thought (or a word to that effect). “What an absolutely botherationy draw that is.”
Ward, Britain’s fifth best player and the world No.177, found that his name had been placed alongside that of Novak Djokovic, the all-conquering world No.1, and that he, ‘Our Wardy’, would be on the other side of the net when the mighty Serb began the defence of his title at 1pm precisely on the first day of The Championships. Oh botheration, indeed.
But Ward ought not to have been so hard on himself. True, he lost to Djokovic but the 6-0, 7-6(3), 6-4 score was perfectly respectable. Drawing a veil over the first set, he gave a good account of himself and gave the defending champion more than enough to think about in his opening match.
That opening moment of the tournament is one that Djokovic cherishes. To step out on the pristine court, on to the unsullied grass, a lawn not touched by sneaker sole nor pigeon claw – that is a moment to savour.
“It's going to be the first match on the untouched grass,” Djokovic purred on the eve of The Championships. “That's probably one of the most special tennis matches that you get to experience as a professional tennis player.”
This, then, was going to be an “experience” for Ward, too. But putting your head in the washing machine and hitting the spin cycle is an also experience. It’s just an experience you don’t want to have again in a hurry.
To be target practice for a man who is rapidly proving himself as one of the greatest players ever to pick up a racket could be akin to that washing machine moment, only slightly more painful. And so it proved for Ward for the first half an hour of the contest.
Ward, by contrast, has been haring around the grass court events for the last few weeks, from Manchester to Nottingham by way of Stuttgart and Queen’s Club, in pursuit of practice and ranking points. Still, there were a lot of contrast between the home-grown hope and the defending champion: Djokovic strode on to court with his every accessory sponsored and branded. Ward carried his drinks and snacks into the hallowed arena in a plastic carrier bag from a well-known supermarket (bag price: 5p). Ward struggled to get a handful of points on the board in the first set; Djokovic eased through his service games as if he were in the warm-up. Blink and you missed them. Oh, he had a few break points to defend but they were flicked away as you would flick fluff off your sleeve.
For nine games, Djokovic was untouchable and Ward looked stage-struck. But then, slowly but surely, he crawled out of his shell and started to play. Every point he won was greeted with rapturous applause by the Centre Court crowd – they were desperate for him to win a game at least (although probably not quite as desperate as the man himself) and when he finally did, they were beside themselves. When he went on to break the Djokovic serve in the next game, he turned to crowd with arms aloft. This was victory indeed.
And from there, Ward built and Djokovic had to adapt. They stood toe-to-toe for the best part of 56 minutes until they reached the tie-break. That was when Djokovic slammed the door shut, racing to a 5-1 lead and allowing his rival a miserly three points in all. “For the first nine games, there is really not much to say about my game,” Djokovic said. “It was really flawless. The nerves kicked in for James but he started playing better in the second part of the second set and in the third. It was hard to break him.”
Djokovic, fresh from completing his career Grand Slam by winning the French Open could not have been more confident. By winning at Roland Garros, he now held all four major championship titles and is only the third man in history ever to have been in such a position.
But after all the mental, physical and emotional effort that victory took, the world No.1 needed a bit of a break after Paris to regroup and recharge his batteries.
Save for one exhibition match last week, he had not played a competitive match in three weeks but, then again, he has not played a warm-up event since 2010 and it has not done him any harm. Since he abandoned the traditional preparations for The Championships, he has won all of his three titles in SW19 and reached the final a further time.
Hard, but not impossible. The top seed broke for a 2-0 lead in the third set to take a vice-like grip on the match. For all that Ward fought, he could not make any impression on the Serb’s seemingly impenetrable defences.
So, business as usual for Djokovic; back to the drawing board for Ward. Oh, botheration.
