Dan Evans and James Ward have both secured victories in the first round of the Nottingham Challenger.

Both players are looking to show some form in the hope of securing a wildcard for Wimbledon, with Evans having served a year-long drugs ban and Ward spending a significant portion of the last 18 months on the sidelines.

However, the pair have earned some valuable ranking points in the East Midlands with wins over German pair Dominik Koepfer and Tobias Simon.

Evans - who is currently ranked at 530 in the world rankings - defeated Koepfer by a 6-3 7-5 scoreline, while world number 407 Ward defied 34 aces from Simon to run out a 6-4 6-7 7-6 victor.

However, there were defeats for both top seed Cameron Norrie and youngster Jay Clarke, with Norrie losing in three sets to Tatsuma Ito and Clarke missing out against Tobias Kamke.