Australian James Duckworth bravely saved two match points in his second-round singles match at Brisbane International 2024.
Brisbane, Australia , 3 January 2024 | Leigh Rogers
James Duckworth has endured many challenges throughout his professional career.
There’s been nine surgery setbacks, with elbow, foot, shoulder and hip issues forcing the 31-year-old Australian onto the sidelines and into countless hours of rehabilitation.
Many of those painful and lonely hours of rehab have been spent at the Queensland Tennis Centre, where Duckworth has trained for the past 10 years.
This summer, however, the world No.116 is only creating happy memories at the venue.
After winning two qualifying rounds to earn his spot in this year’s Brisbane International men’s singles draw, Duckworth has posted back-to-back top-60 wins to progress to the quarterfinals at the tournament for the first time in nine years.
Duckworth’s resilience was on show in a second-round encounter with world No.51 Yannick Hanfmann today, where he saved two match points in a thrilling 4-6 6-1 7-6(2) victory.
He described the atmosphere at Show Court 1 as “awesome” and credited the hometown support for “helping get him through”.
Also boosted by 22 aces throughout the two-hour and 25-minute battle, this effort propels Duckworth into this first ATP-level quarterfinal since September 2022.
He next plays either world No.8 Holger Rune of Denmark, the tournament’s top seed, or world No.48 Alexander Shevchenko for a place in the semifinals.
Alexei Popyrin’s campaign ended in heartbreak after squandering five match points in his loss to world No.39 Roman Safiullin.
After trailing 2-5 in the deciding set, Safiullin fought back to triumph 6-7(9) 6-4 7-6(3) in a see-sawing encounter that lasted almost three hours.
In the men’s doubles competition, the all-Australian combination of Max Purcell and Jordan Thompson have advanced to the quarterfinals.
Purcell and Thompson scored a 6-3 6-3 win against the fifth seeds, world No.43 Nikola Mektic of Croatia and world No.15 Hugo Nys of Monaco, to set-up a final-eight clash with Australian John-Patrick Smith and German Andreas Mies.
Smith and Mies eliminated the reigning Australian Open champions, Rinky Hijikata and Jason Kubler, in the second round.
Aussies in action – Brisbane International
TODAY’S RESULTS
Men’s singles, second round
[Q] James Duckworth (AUS) d Yannick Hanfmann (GER) 4-6 6-1 7-6(2)
Roman…
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