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Ward claims memorable victory against Lopez

James Ward was one game from victory when Feliciano Lopez retired © Getty Images

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British No. 7 James Ward pulled off the biggest victory of his career as he stunned second seed Feliciano Lopez to reach the second round of the AEGON International at Eastbourne.

The result was marred by the retirement of Lopez with Ward just one game away from victory at 6-3 5-4, but the world No. 342 dominated the match against a player ranked more than 300 places ahead of him, holding his nerve to save four break points.

Lopez received treatment on his shoulder during the second set, but by this time Ward was already a set and a break to the good, and looked to be on course for an impressive victory, and was clearly relishing his chance to play in front of a big crowd.

"You don't get to play in front of big crowds like this and on a big court like Feliciano does every week, so it's always a good opportunity to play in front of your home crowd and get great support."

Ward reached a career high of 187 last summer, but slipped down the rankings after missing four months of the season with glandular fever.

He will now meet Rainer Schuettler in the second round, after the German continued his impressive run of form with a 6-2 6-3 victory over Andrey Golubev. The surprise Queen's semi-finalist took advantage of his opponent's shaky serve to wrap up victory after just 70 minutes on court.

Other winners on the day included Nicolas Almagro, Yen-Hsun Lu, Illya Marchenko and Guillermo Garcia-Lopez.

At the Unicef Open, Xavier Malisse is through to the third round after he beat Daniel Brands 4-6 6-1 7-5. The Belgian, who reached the Wimbledon semi-finals in 2002, only seemed to wake up in the second set, picking up two breaks in both the second and third to claim victory.

No. 8 seed Benjamin Becker also needed three sets in his first round clash with Jarkko Nieminen, eventually winning after 100 minutes on court. Becker's serve dictated the clash, staying around the 80 percent mark in sets one and three, either side of the one set he lost, where the first-serve rate dropped to 54 percent.

There were also wins for Janko Tipsarevic, Sergiy Stakhovsky and Alejandro Falla, who beat Ivan Ljubicic 6-2 7-6(6).

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