James Ward blames All England Club for Wimbledon absence

• Ward loses in straight sets to Alexandr Dolgopolov • Elena Baltacha loses to Sam Stosur at Eastbourne Everton Gayle and Tim Henman has called on British players to start taking more responsibility for themselves. The retired player is frustrated there are no English men in the singles draw at Wimbledon next week and is peeved in particular at Alex Bogdanovic, who has complained he has not had enough support from the Lawn Tennis Association. “When are players going to take more responsibility for themselves? asked the former British No1. “You’re always hearing complaints about lack of funding, demanding to have a new coach or the parents complaining about something. Ultimately it comes down to the player. I know Boggo, he’s a nice lad and has lots of talent but he needs to look at himself in the mirror and ask if he deserves more funding. He’s 26 and after all he’s had, he really shouldn’t be getting any more. “The LTA get a lot things wrong but too often they get blamed for everything,”he added. “I have a problem with a lot of the players, and with the parents. All I ever hear from the players is, ‘I didn’t get this, I didn’t get that, my funding has been cut from X to Y.’ It’s ridiculous. There’s too much of this sense of entitlement. “Part of the problem is that the players get given too much and I find that disappointing. It’s got to be about the individuals, they’ve got to go out and make this happen and do it themselves,” James Ward lost in straight sets to Alexandr Dolgopolov to complete a disappointing day for the two remaining Britons at the Aegon International, after the women’s British No1, Elena Baltacha, was defeated in three sets by Sam Stosur. Ward then stated his frustration with the All England Club for not offering him a wild card into next week’s Wimbledon. Speaking after his 6-3, 6-4 defeat by Dolgopolov, the Ukrainain ranked 47th in the world, Ward said of his absence: “It’s very frustrating [with] obviously beating two good guys here [Feliciano López and Rainer Schüttler] who are going to go on and do very well at Wimbledon in the next two weeks. But it’s not in my control.”Yesterday Leon Smith, the LTA’s head of player development, acknowledged yesterday that it was his organisation’s decision not to propose Ward to the All England Club as a wild card, but Ward said last night that the All England Club was to blame for his absence. “He [Smith] explained a little bit,” said Ward. “I don’t think it’s up to the LTA, it’s up to the All England club itself. I think the LTA wanted me to play but the All England club make their own decisions. He [Smith] certainly would have wanted me involved like he would have wanted a lot of other players involved as well.” Asked if he was disappointed that the All England Club was not supporting English players, Ward said: “Yes it’s disappointing. They offered me a wild card into the qualifying which is great. But I picked this tournament because of the chance of playing good players in a top 250 event and get some good ranking points, which I’ve got and will get my ranking up for the rest of the year.” Baltacha, meanwhile, said of her defeat to Stosur: “She was just too good, she kept serving bombs, kept mixing it up, with great variety. She was taking swings and hitting winners and was too good for me today.” Stosur was the losing finalist in this month’s French Open and Baltacha said that the world No7 is continuing that form. “She was on a roll – there’s a reason why she made the finals of Paris, she’s a very good player.I knew I’d have to perform unbelievable.” Kim Clijsters, the US Open Champion, lost in straight sets to Victoria Azarenka.” Tennis Jamie Jackson guardian.co.uk

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James Ward blames All England Club for Wimbledon absence