On the third day of main draw action at the Glasgow Trophy, James Ward kickstarted his campaign with a first-round victory over Japanese sixth seed Kaichi Uchida. The Brit battled to a 6-4,7-6(6) win to secure his spot in the second round.
Ward, who had knee surgery last year and did not play for seven months, returned to court in February and is in need of valuable ranking points:
“I’ve been back on the court only the last couple of months slowly building it up, you can’t rush it. It wasn’t a nice time but it makes it worth it to come back and win some matches and hopefully have a good week. Day by day I’m feeling a little bit more comfortable here and lets hope it continues.”
Slovakian top seed Lucas Lacko also made his way safely through to the second round with a straight sets win over Belgium’s Joris de Loore, whilst Ward's British compatriot Aidan McHugh fell in his opening round encounter. The 17-year old suffered a narrow 7-6(5), 6-3 defeat to France’s David Guez.
Mchugh revealed that he had spoken to his mentor Andy Murray ahead of his match: “I spoke to him about how to play him (Guez) a little bit, so that’s a bit weird for me because Andy actually knows these guys that I’m playing, so that’s quite cool and hopefully that kind of thing can help in the future.
"I don’t know if Andy was watching, I’m sure if he could he would be watching to see how I got on. It's been great just having him around, obviously he knows what he’s talking about so any kind of advice and guidance helps me loads.”
Earlier in the day, Lloyd Glasspool returned for his second-round clash, but fell Guillermo Olaso 6-4, 6-3 to Spain's Guillermo Olaso.
Meanwhile in the doubles, there was British success for top seeds Jonny O’Mara and Scott Clayton, who got their campaign off to a winning start against the Japanese pairing of Hiroki Moriya and Kaichi Uchida 6-7(7), 6-2, [10-5].
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