He is currently playing the 15th Sarawak Chief Minister's Cup, in Malaysia. After qualifying in two pretty easy straight set matches. He is now played three matches and is through to the quarter final's in straight sets. He will next play America's Campbell Johnson.
Duckworth played in Thailand last week where he made the main draw by qualifying then made it to the third round, he also ended up winning the doubles title with Benjamin Mitchell, who did the double last week winning the singles and the doubles. These are some of his stats.
Birth Date - 21/01/1992
Birth Place - Sydney, NSW
Residence - Sydney, NSW
Nationality - Australian
Plays - Right Hand (Double Handed Backhand)
Favourite Surface - Grass
Coach - Ben Pyne
Current Ranking - 169
Career High - 17
He is also currently ranked 1395 in the men's rankings at the moment.
Great win for James and he is now into his first challenger semifinal. I think the match against Matosevic is definitely winnable, in fact I would say James is the favourite. If James does lose he'll move to about 184, if he makes the final he'll move to about 177 and if he wins Caloundra he'll move to 160 in the world. Considering James only has 7 points to defend between now and mid-May means he could really move up in the world. His schedule goes like this from what I can tell:
Lots of points to gain in the next two futures. After that I presume he'll go to Europe and enter some challengers because he hasn't entered the ones in Asia.
he has done well so far in Caloundra so hopefully his run can continue over Matosevic but he´s the 1st tough opponent in my opinion... those 3 matches were a must win and James managed to be through with smaller troubles... but he´s in his 1st SF of challenger which is great for him and it gives him some confidence and experience....
are the next tournaments confirmed officially? I´m not sure if it´s a good choice still to play Futures with his rankings but I understand for Aussie in his rankings position is tough to go and play some challengers in Europe because everything costs money and stay in Europe can be too expensive for James right now but I also know the Australian Institue of Sport has got a base in Italy but maybe James plans to stay in the European base from spring...
anyway good luck and fingers crossed! beat Matosevic!
You are right, I accidentally confused him with James Lemke. I guess James would be likely to head over to Europe and play some challengers but he is not on any lists so I am not sure what he is doing.
My choice for Duckie would be for at least a week off, no tennis, as he has just come through a very intense period of the Australian Summer of tennis.
A week off, no tennis, no training, then perhaps a week or two training/hitting/coaching before hitting the Challenger Circuit, say in Europe on clay. No need to burn-out and he needs some time for development, to add to his obvious good game and potential.
Yeah - well done James on getting below 200. Leaves him well placed to play Challengers this year and the qualies for the Grand Slams and maybe even a few ATP qualies.
Heard that Duckworth and Mitchell were having a week's training in Noosa with Rafter and Josh Eagle, and maybe Marinko too, as Eagle also coaches him.
any news regarding of James? I am not sure he will be play IW or Miami in March but it would be great for him to get a wild card into qualies at least....
Quite suprised James didnt enter IW quallies as alt. A couple of withdrawls and he would have been in. He is on the Alt list for Miami so we will have to see if he is on the qualies list on Wedneseday.
I don´t really understand why James isnt´t playing IW he could have competed in qualies at least... playing Rabat doesn´t make sense at all if he is playing Miami after.... why would he play on clay and then back on hard and why would he travel to the US?... lost money in my opinion but it would be fine to play Miami on the other hand..
I would say it is almost definite that James will enter the challenger the following week in Marrakech, Morocco (effectively ruling himself out of Miami qualies). From there I would imagine he'll just travel around Europe (mostly France and Italy) playing clay challengers and perhaps the ocassional ATP qualifying in the lead up to Roland Garros qualifying. He only has 13 points to defend between now and the start of Roland Garros so there is lots of room for James to move up the ranking and perhaps clinch a seeding at Roland Garros qualifying.
Seems like a clever schedule: two Moroccan Challengers then a week off then a Moroccan ATP event. The ATP event, Casablanca, usually has a relatively weak draw.
so we´ve got his schedule for March so hopefully James can get some wins and points in Morocco to help him to climb up the rankings... he played the whole season on clay last year and gained some experience how to play on this surface and won all the titles on clay so he could use it and get some good results not only in March but during the whole clay court season...
If that is James's schedule, the AIS is now thinking a lot smarter. Unlike when Klein and Jones were in the AIS, all they did was follow the older guys around (Smeets, Feeney, etc.) with no great thought behind their schedule. Ludicrous, they were the "guinea-pigs"(experiment). At least the AIS is learning (if they were the thinking behind James's schedule).
James starting the tournament with a match against Aljaz Bedene from Slovenia who´s no. 139.. The Slovenian won a Casablanca challenger two weeks ago so it looks like a pretty tough first round for Ducky... James has nothing to lose he can only surprise...
anyway good luck and fingers crossed! it would be nice to get some points and beat a better ranked player....
James lost 36 57 to Bedene... match time: 2:09 h... I guess it was a very tough match for both... unfortunately, James lost but good experience for him at least... hopefully he can win a match at least in next tournament...
Ducky will face Stephane Robert in 1st round of the Marrakech challenger... Robert is the 7th seeded and no. 122... I think everyone has wished James a more gentle draw... it would be nice to get through but Robert is a solid clay court player....
Very tough match. I still remember Robert beating Berdych at last year's FO cant see James winning this one.
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