Sidelined Heather Watson can draw comfort from James Ward's recovery

 
4 April 2013

James Ward knows exactly how Heather Watson is feeling after the British women’s No1 ­discovered she has glandular fever and must take a break from tennis.

Ward, the British men’s No2, endured the same scenario four years ago and the memory of the illness is still strong as he prepares to spearhead Great Britain’s Davis Cup team against Russia in Coventry starting tomorrow.

The 26-year-old said: “I heard about Heather last night. I had the same thing for five months and had to stop playing. It took me a few months to discover what was wrong.

“It’s not an injury and because you only feel tired you tend to look for other reasons. I stopped completely because it was a serious case of the disease and you have no energy and don’t want to eat. You can’t play top-level tennis feeling like that.”

The good news for Watson is that blood tests have shown she is at the tail-end of the illness and she hopes to be able to bounce back, having risen to No40 in the world. She is two places above Laura Robson —who was knocked out of the Family Circle Cup in Charleston by Eugenie Bouchard 6-4, 3-6, 6-1 yesterday — although will be overtaken by her compatriot when the rankings are updated on Monday.

Watson pulled out of this week’s tournament with a leg injury and returned home to recover. She said: “There is no prescription for this other than complete rest.”

Ward and Watson are part of the 21-strong Team Aegon which means they receive funding for travel and top-level sport science support, including medical, physical, psychological and nutritional assistance as well as regular evaluation of their progress.

This will kick–in to help Watson’s recovery while Ward is able to tap into the financial help to take him around the world in search of the points to get him back up to rankings.

A year ago, Ward was a career-high No137 and the North Londoner appeared to be realising his potential. However, he then fell heavily at the Newport grass-court tournament in North America which took place after Wimbledon and broke a bone in his left hand, requiring surgery.

Then, after coming back, he severely damaged a ligament in the same left wrist which made hitting his two-handed back hand incredibly painful, forcing him to take an extended break.

Ward is currently ranked 214 and explained: “I fell over in Newport on the grass and needed surgery in London which put a pin into the bone. I came back from that only to tear the ligament and there was no option to stop for three months because it was a pretty bad tear. The specialist couldn’t believe I was able to pick anything up with that tear and I had really bad pain every time I hit the ball. That was in September and I didn’t come back until January, having gone to Dubai with my girlfriend to train in the heat.

“When you are recovering you do think about getting back to your previous ranking and there are difficult times — you need to be strong.”

Ward has played in six of Britain’s last seven ties with the team winning five of those contests. The Euro/Africa Zone Group I second-round clash will see Ward contest the singles alongside Dan Evans while Colin Fleming and Jonny Marray make up the ­doubles team.

As Lead Partner of British Tennis, life and pensions company Aegon supports the game at all levels, from grass roots through to backing the British Davis Cup and Fed Cup Teams. For more information please visit: aegontennis.co.uk

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in

MORE ABOUT