Wimbledon Countdown - No Englishman in Draw

This article was taking in full from the Guardian.co.uk.

Jamie Jackson reports about history in the making.

History will be created at next week's Wimbledon when for the first time since the Championships began in 1877 there will be no English player in the main draw of the men's singles, with confusion surrounding why James Ward was not offered a wild card by the Lawn Tennis Association.

The 23-year-old's ranking inside the top 250 before he fell ill at the end of last year meant he was within the LTA's criteria for issuing a wild card and the situation was muddied when the Scot Jamie Baker received an invitation despite his ranking of No254 when they were issued six weeks ago. He is now ranked No259.

Leon Smith, the LTA's head of player development, defended the situation regarding wild cards, saying: "There are fewer British men in the main draw because fewer wild cards have been handed out. We accept that this is where we are in the men's game, but what I saw in qualifying this week was British players fighting for every point, battling for a place in the Championships.

"That's what we need to concentrate on – creating an environment where more British players aren't just in the first round because of a wild card, but on merit, and not just in the first round, but fighting through to the later stages of the tournament."

Ward is now ranked 252 in the world. He was offered a wild card into qualifying for Wimbledon but decided instead to compete in the Aegon international at Eastbourne. The 23-year-old today defeated Rainer Schüttler, a semi-finalist at Wimbledon in 2008, 6-3, 7-6 to reach the quarter-finals, having defeated Feliciano López, the top seed, in the previous round.

Those are the two best results of his career. Regarding the refusal of a wild card he said: "It's a little bit disappointing because I was out for six months. I wish that had been taken into consideration because I have been in the top 250 for the last 18 months. It is only that I dropped off points in the week before the cut-off for wild cards."

Ward now plays Alexandr Dolgopolov, the Ukrainian ranked 47th in the world. Of the 128-man field at Wimbledon, 104 are automatically invited, 16 places are gained via qualification while eight wild cards can be issued.