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Australia ATP Cup captain Lleyton Hewitt is proud of James Duckworth and the way he responded to the many challenges he faced throughout his career. After overcoming eight surgery setbacks throughout his career, world No. 49 Duckworth enjoyed the best season of his career in 2021.
Last year, Duckworth made his maiden ATP final in Nur-Sultan and achieved a career-high ranking of No. 47 in the world. "He’s always had setbacks throughout his career. So I think for him to keep bouncing back and responding in the way he has, is something we’re all extremely proud of,” Hewitt said, per Tennis Australia.
“He does absolutely everything right in terms of his body and professionalism that he brings to the table every single day on the practice court or the match court. So it’s great he’s getting the success now and the body is holding up, as well, which is really important”.
Hewitt nominated Duckworth for the ATP Cup
Following a great 2021 season, Duckworth earned a chance to represent Australia at the ATP Cup in Sydney. "I’m looking forward to it, especially playing here in Sydney where I grew up and I trained for a number of years,” Duckworth said.
“(I’ve) got a bunch of family and friends coming out to watch”. Duckworth didn't make a great start to 2021 but everything changed after he returned home after the Miami Masters to do a good training block.
"I went home in the middle of 2021 after Miami and put in a really good training block with my coach, Wayne Arthurs, and just got really clear on my game style,” said Duckworth. “It probably took a couple of months to gain some confidence, you know, playing aggressively.
And I think from that, the results continued to improve”. Duckworth is set to take on world No. 10 Jannik Sinner in his first match at the ATP Cup.