AUSTRALIAN OPEN

January 22, 2026

James Duckworth

Press Conference

J. SINNER/J. Duckworth

6-1, 6-4, 6-2

THE MODERATOR: James, a tough match out there. What are you feeling after that?

JAMES DUCKWORTH: Thanks. Yeah, it was a tough one. Yeah, it was a difficult challenge. But, yeah, it was great to play on Rod Laver again in front of a packed house. The support was amazing. It's always really enjoyable playing at home on center court, really.

Q. How do you look at your summer in totality? You ran into a very tough player in Adelaide, who went on to win it all. Qualified in Brisbane, a five-set win here.

JAMES DUCKWORTH: Yeah, I mean, I played some good tennis and, yeah, I mean qualified in Brisbane and played a pretty good match, nearly won the first round there. And Michelsen went on to make the semis. Then didn't play that well in Adelaide, but once again up against a pretty good player who won the tournament.

Then, yeah, played here. I didn't think my tennis was great in the first round, but I was really happy with the way I fought through and battled two sets to one down and overcame a lot to win that one.

Today was a tough one. Yeah, it was -- probably physically a little jaded from the first round. Yeah, when you're coming up against the world no. 2, where he's won the tournament in the last two years at night when conditions couldn't be much worse for me, yeah, it was a tough challenge.

Q. At age 34, nine surgeries, you're back in the top 100 again. I know you're probably sick of talking about your resilience, but how pleasing is it to still be at this sort of level with everything you've been through?

JAMES DUCKWORTH: Yeah, I'm trying to get better though. Yeah, the goal is to get back into the top 50. That's been the goal ever since I've started working with my new coach in September. Yeah, that's what we're working towards. Yeah, I continue to push towards that.