James Duckworth

Fast Facts

Sport: Tennis
Event: Men's singles
Olympic History: Tokyo 2020
Year Born: 1992
State Born: NSW

About James

The Wahroonga-born talent has won 18 Challenger titles since he joined the ATP Tour in 2010. He won his first Futures tournament as a nineteen-year-old in Krakow at the Poland F1 tournament, held on clay courts. He would go on to win five more Futures titles before claiming a maiden Challenger title at the Lexington Challenger Tournament three years later. 

Duckworth also holds a doubles title on the ATP Challenger Tour, which he achieved at the Taroii Open de Tenis in Itajai, Brazil in 2013, alongside Frenchman Pierre-Hugues Herbert. 

James reached a career level high ranking of 71 after a successful fortnight of play in India. He reached his first ATP Tour semifinal at the Maharashtra Open in Pune, followed by a win at the Bengaluru Challenger the following week. 

He has recorded a career-best result of a second round appearance at all four grand slams at least once. 

He notably made it through to the third round of the Miami Open in 2021, his best result at a ATP Masters 1000 Tournament, despite having appeared at only two other major main draws. He survived Germany's Mischa Zverev in the opening round, before breezing past former top ten player and eighth-seeded David Goffin, to make it to the third round. There, he played Kazakhstan's Alexander Bublik, who bested the Aussie 6-4, 6-4. This performance remains his best ATP singles run to date. 

In the world of doubles tennis, James has appeared in 10 Australian Open Main Draws in the men's doubles, where he produced a best result of a quarter finals berth in 2020. He was awarded a wildcard into the tournament alongside fellow Australian Marc Polmans and together breezed through the first two rounds before they survived tenth-seeded duo Pavic and Soares in the third. Duckworth and Polmans battled Kazakhstani pairing Alexander Bublik and Mikhail Kukushkin, but were defeated in straight sets.

James kicked off his 2021 season in strong form, recording his first top-50 win in almost five years, defeating Frenchman Ugo Humbert at the Murray River Open in straight sets. He also bested Bosnian Damir Dzumhur in straight sets to make it to the second round of the Australian Open, where he was defeated by the young Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime.

In the weeks prior to his Olympic berth, James produced his best ever singles result at a grand slam, reaching the third round at Wimbledon, where he was bested by 23rd seed Lorenzo Sonego of Italy in straight sets.

Duckworth made his Olympic debut at Tokyo 2020 in the singles event where he was one of four Australian men drawn. He met Lukas Klein of Slovenia in the first round, notching a win in a thrilling three set. Klein, ranked 254th in the ATP standings, pushed the the world no.77 to a third set tiebreak with the Sydney-born talent taking the match 5-7 6-3 7-6(4). 

Drawing twelfth seed Karen Khachanov (ROC) in the second round, James was dealt a difficult match with his opponent coming off a recent Wimbledon quarterfinal berth in the week prior. Duckworth was up a break early in the first set, but Khachanov proved too good, defeating the Australian, 7-5 6-1. 

James reached a career-high singles ranking of No.46 in January of 2022 after the Australian Open.