James Duckworth reaches the second round at the US Open for the first since 2016 after beating fellow Australian Chris O’Connell in four sets.
New York, USA, 31 August 2022 | Matt Trollope
James Duckworth beat friend and fellow Australian Chris O’Connell to reach the second round at the US Open for just the second time in his career – and first time since 2016.
Just over 12 hours after Nick Kyrgios and Thanasi Kokkinakis concluded their first-round match, Duckworth and O’Connell went head-to-head in another all-Aussie affair on a hot and humid day at Flushing Meadows.
While O’Connell began more strongly, it was Duckworth who hurtled down the home straight hardest, wresting control deep in the second set to flip the match in his favour.
The 30-year-old’s 4-6 7-6(0) 6-2 6-3 triumph sets up a second-round meeting with 20th seed Dan Evans of Great Britain, a player having an impressive season and who recently reached the Montreal Masters semifinals.
It’s been a less impressive season for Duckworth, but not of his own doing; following the Australian summer the injury-plagued Aussie was forced to undergo another bout of surgery, this time on his hip.
> READ: Duckworth on surgeries – “You appreciated the good times more”
At that time he was ranked inside the top 50, but was sidelined for four months and is now outside the top 80.
Duckworth arrived at Flushing Meadows with a 9-16 record in 2022 and having lost four of his past six matches.
But he scored opening-round wins at ATP events in Atlanta and Winston-Salem, the latter coming over Kokkinakis.
He told tennis.com.au prior to the tournament that the Kokkinakis victory was his best performance since his hip procedure.
O’Connell’s form, conversely, was good coming into New York; he had won eight of 12 hard-court matches, including qualifying for Winston-Salem and holding four match points against eventual champion Adrian Mannarino in the first round.
He continued that into his clash with Duckworth, breaking serve in the very first game and carrying that advantage through until the end of the set.
O’Connell found himself in a beautiful groove on serve; deep in the second set he was winning more than 90 per cent of first-serve points.
Although frustrated that he could not sink his teeth into the match, Duckworth remained patient enough to send the second set to a tiebreak.
And once there, he completely dominated it, winning all seven points and closing…
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