Ward holds nerve to nudge Britain over line

After preserving their Europe/Africa Zone Group II status by defeating Turkey last summer, Leon Smith’s team move on to a second-round tie with Luxembourg in July where another victory would give them a chance to earn promotion.

There were certainly positives for Smith to take from this weekend, not least the battling spirit shown by Ward in his 3-6 6-3 3-6 6-3 8-6 win over Tunisian No 1 Jaziri.

But it is a sign of how far Britain have fallen that the African side were almost certainly the worst they have played.

Tunisia did not even travel with a physiotherapist and, world No 325 Jaziri aside, boasted one ranking point between them.

Smith took heart from the result but accepted it also showed how long the road back to respectability will be.

He said: “You’ve got to be very pleased with a win. It’s another step in the right direction but we should be winning matches at this level.

“You can see now when you look at someone like Jaziri, it just shows the depth in the men’s game. The standard’s going up and up all the time so for that reason it’s just good to get through the tie.”

Andy Murray has already indicated he is likely to play against Luxembourg, who defeated Ireland yesterday, and Ward will surely be the No 2 singles player after improving his Davis Cup record to five wins and one defeat.

After losing only two games against hapless Sami Ghorbel on Friday, this was always going to be a much tougher test, and so it proved as Jaziri again played above his ranking to push Ward all the way in a match that lasted three hours and 45 minutes.

A poor start from the home hope helped Jaziri take the first set and there was a certain symmetry about the next three as Ward first battled back then gave away the initiative again before levelling things for a second time.

The fifth set was a tense affair and it was Ward who cracked first, handing his opponent a break in the sixth game.

But he retrieved it straightaway and the match stayed on serve until the 13th game when the Briton moved ahead for the first time before sealing victory when weary Jaziri netted a forehand.

Ward said: “It was a very tough match, I had to fight. I didn’t play my best tennis but sometimes when you’re not playing as well as you can you dig deep and find something from somewhere, and in the end I came through.”