Joanne Ward (born 22 June 1975) is a British former tennis player. She competed in five

Wimbledon Championships The Wimbledon Championships, commonly known simply as Wimbledon, is the oldest tennis tournament in the world and is widely regarded as the most prestigious. It has been held at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, All England Club in ...

between 1994 and 2000, losing each time in the first round, and has represented the

Great Britain Fed Cup team The Great Britain Billie Jean King Cup team represents the United Kingdom in Fed Cup tennis competition and are governed by the Lawn Tennis Association. In 2020, they lost out on a chance to secure a place at the inaugural Billie Jean King Cup f ...

. She was for a time the British number two.

Career

Aged 16, Ward was told she would never play tennis again, after two knee operations. In 1994, she won the UK Tennis National Championships, beating British number one

Clare Wood Clare Jacqueline Wood (born 8 March 1968) is a former British number 1 tennis player from Great Britain who began playing professionally in 1984 and retired in 1998. Over the course of her career, she reached a career-high singles ranking of wo ...

in the semifinals. In the same year, she made her debut at the

, losing in the first round to

Dominique Monami Dominique Monami (born 31 May 1973) is a former tennis player from Belgium. She is her country's first ever top-10 tennis professional. Monami was born in Verviers. In 1995, she married her coach Bart Van Roost, with whom she has a daughter, an ...

. She also competed at Wimbledon in 1996, 1998 and 2000, losing first-round matches to

Claire Taylor Samantha Claire Taylor (born 25 September 1975) is a former cricketer who represented England more than 150 times between 1998 and 2011. A top order batter,In women's cricket, "batsman" is commonly used, alongside "batter". Taylor was the f ...

Karen Cross Karen Cross (born 19 February 1974) is a left-handed British former tennis player who competed at eight Wimbledon Championships during the 1990s and early 2000s, as well as for the Great Britain Fed Cup team in both 1994 and 1998. During the co ...

and

Anke Huber Anke Huber (born 4 December 1974) is a German retired top-five professional tennis player. She was the runner-up in women's singles at the 1996 Australian Open – Women's singles, 1996 Australian Open and the 1995 WTA Tour Championships, 1995 W ...

respectively. Ward also represented Great Britain in the

Fed Cup The Billie Jean King Cup (or the BJK Cup) is the premier international team competition in women's tennis, launched as the Federation Cup in 1963 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the International Tennis Federation (ITF). The name was cha ...

and the European Championships.

Post-career

In 2004, Ward was one of a number of people who were highly critical of the

Lawn Tennis Association The Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) is the national governing body of tennis in Great Britain, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. Founded in 1888, the LTA promotes all levels of lawn tennis. It believes that tennis can provide "physical ...

, saying that it needed reform. She wanted more individual, tailored coaching.

ITF finals

Singles: 6 (3–3)

Doubles: 15 (9–6)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ward, Joanne 1970s births Living people British female tennis players Place of birth missing (living people)