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Australian tennis player James Duckworth says every time he sees Roger Federer the Swiss "starts quacking." Duckworth faced Federer in the first round at the 2014 Australian Open but didn't have much success as he suffered a straight-set defeat.
During the match between Duckworth and Federer fans at Rod Laver Arena were making regular quacking noises. Duckworth, ranked at No. 49 in the world, is known as "Ducks." "Every time I see (Federer) or I walk past him, he starts quacking, or he calls me ‘Quack’ as well, so it’s pretty funny,’’ Duckworth told NOTE.
“I just say, ‘Hey Rog’. I don’t really have a sound or something for him. It’s just Rog.’’
Duckworth enjoyed a breakout year in 2021
Duckworth made his maiden ATP final in 2021 and broke into the top-50 for the first time in his career.
In his last tournament of the season, Duckworth made his maiden Masters quarterfinal in Paris. "I'll definitely take a lot of positives from this week," said Duckworth after Paris. "Since playing [in] Miami, I feel like I have been playing some good tennis and improving.
There's still a few areas I need to get better at to get higher up the [FedEx ATP] Rankings." Duckworth's Paris campaign came to an end following a 6-2 6-7 (4) 7-5 loss to Hubert Hurkacz. "James was playing some really good tennis," said Hurkacz after the match.
"He was very solid throughout the whole match, especially [in the] second and third sets. He was serving well and it was not easy to play against him. Obviously, in the back of my mind, I [knew] that basically I had to win today.
So that was putting a little bit more pressure [to] push me to compete as hard as I could." Many were surprised by Australian captain Lleyton Hewitt's decision not to select Duckworth for the Davis Cup Finals.