Camden’s James Ward has reached the third round of a Grand Slam tournament for the first time after overcoming the world No45 Jiri Vesely of the Czech Republic in four sets at Wimbledon today.

Ward, the world No111 from Eversholt Street near Euston station, took a set-two set lead and, although Vesely halved the deficit, the north Londoner finished the job to triumph 6-2, 7-6, 3-6, 6-3.

Ward won the first three games of the match and broke Vesely again at the end of the first set to take it 6-2 in just 25 minutes.

The 28-year-old then squandered a number of break points when leading 4-3 in the second set before failing to capitalise on a set point on Vesely’s serve at 5-4.

The result was a tiebreak and Ward quickly went 3-0 down - but a gutsy lob levelled the scores and he went on to win 7-4 to take a two-set lead.

Vesely had not had a single break point in the opening two sets, but he created three in Ward’s first service game of the third set – only to waste them all as the Brit held once again.

But the north Londoner missed an opportunity of his own in the next game and it proved costly as Vesely broke Ward’s serve for the first time and then went 4-1 up en route to taking the third set 6-3.

Ward was in trouble again soon after, 0-30 down on his own serve, but he survived and broke Vesely in the next game to take a 3-1 lead. He had to save another three break points in his next service game to go 4-2 up but held his nerve to win 6-3.

He will be in action again on Saturday and will also leap into the top 100 in the world rankings when the list is updated on Monday.