Ward was initially knocked out in the final round of qualifying, succumbing to Paul-Henri Mathieu. But the late withdrawal of Juan Martin Del Potro with a wrist injury meant that Ward was able to claim a lucky loser spot early on Sunday morning, automatically moving him into the second round.
Ward was certainly he remained in Indian Wells over the weekend, telling the Guardian, "I took a gamble on staying here rather than going to Dallas [for this week's Challenger tournament] and it paid off, and it nearly paid off, and it nearly paid off even better."
The Brit will consider himself unlucky not to have advanced to the third round after looking the better player for much of the match. However, his inability to capitalize on a host of break points, converting just one of his ten he created for himself, left him wondering what might have been.
Flying out of the traps, Ward proved a constant problem to a shaky looking Lopez, eventually converting his seventh break point to take a 4-2 lead in the first set courtesy of a mishit overhead. The first set continued on serve as Ward eventually wrapped it up 6-3
Lopez responded in the second set with an early break to lead 3-0. Ward was notably struggling to cope with the left-handed Spaniard and was broken again before the end of the second set, losing it 6-2.
In a nervy final set, both players had few chances to break the other but it was Lopez who converted one of his two break points, going on to eventually beat the baffling Brit 6-4 in the Final set.
Ward though will take heart from another fine display against an established tour regular after defeating Sam Querrey in the Davis Cup and upsetting World Number 60 Teymuraz Gabashvili two weeks ago in Dubai.
His loss leaves Andy Murray as the sole British survivor in the singles side of the tournament. Murray will take on rising star Jiri Vesely in the third round as he seeks to recover from a slow start to the 2014 season.
Published on SEaT Capital.
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