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Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Players to Watch in 2012: James Duckworth (’92)


Duckworth is another Aussie with junior pedigree and an amazing 2011 season under his belt. The former ITF No.7 and junior French Open semi-finalist compiled a 40-14 record while winning 4 futures titles and reaching 2 other finals. Duckworth improved his ranking by nearly 500 spots, jumping all the way to 274 to close the year.

What distinguishes Duckworth from fellow Aussie Ben Mitchell is that Duckworth went outside of his comfort zone and played the second half of the year in Europe and South America. Duckworth terrorized his opponents while playing in some of the most competitive fields in Italy, Poland and Great Britain. He won 15K + H tournaments and defeated players like Joshua Goodall (GBR), Jerzy Janowicz (POL) and Pavol Cervenak (SVK), who have talent and experience at the Challenger level.

It’s also worth mentioning that Duckworth wrapped up the year by playing Challengers and Challenger qualys in the South American clay. When taking into account that grass is his favorite surface, this shows that he is willing to diversify his game and be exposed to different types of competition. His results weren’t great, but the experience is sure to pay off.

Look for him to quickly establish himself at the Challenger level. He has already been handed a wild card into the Australian Open main draw and could easily upset a foreigner while playing in his backyard. I envision him cracking the top 150 with an outside shot of being in the top 100.  

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