James Duckworth Secures Quarterfinal Spot at Winston-Salem

James Duckworth finally cracked the code.

After two bruising losses to Lorenzo Sonego on grass, the Australian walked into Winston-Salem with a score to settle and walked out with a place in the quarterfinals — and a timely surge of confidence before the US Open.

This time, the rallies ended on his terms. Duckworth, already safely in the main draw at Flushing Meadows with a ranking of 79, produced a sharp, disciplined 7-5, 6-3 win over the Italian in Thursday’s ATP 250 clash, needing just one hour and 44 minutes to flip the script on a difficult head-to-head.

Sonego had been a genuine roadblock. He swept Duckworth aside at Wimbledon in 2021, 6-3, 6-3, 6-4 in the third round, then edged him in a pair of tiebreaks at Eastbourne in 2022 after Duckworth had led by a set. Those scars don’t fade quickly.

This time, the Australian refused to give him a way back.

Duckworth broke serve twice, held his nerve in the tight moments, and, crucially, snuffed out all three break points he faced. No loose games. No lapses. Just solid, mature tennis from a 34-year-old who knows opportunities at this level cannot be wasted.

The reward is a quarterfinal against 15th seed Fabian Marozsan, the Hungarian shot-maker who recovered from a poor start to beat American wildcard Martin Damm 2-6, 6-3, 6-3. A place in the semifinals is now on the line, with Duckworth carrying both form and a sense of revenge well served.

Not every Australian story in Winston-Salem had a happy twist.

Rinky Hijikata ran into a buzzsaw named Benjamin Bonzi and barely had time to settle before he was out. The Frenchman delivered a ruthless 6-1, 6-1 dismantling in just 57 minutes, a performance as clean as the scoreline suggests.

Bonzi barely missed. He won a staggering 96 per cent of points behind his first serve and converted five of seven break-point chances, turning Hijikata’s service games into target practice. For the young Australian, any hopes of sneaking into the last eight were gone almost as soon as they formed.

Elsewhere in the draw, Britain’s top hope Arthur Fery looked assured and untroubled, brushing aside qualifier Mees Rottgering 6-3, 6-3 to move through with minimal fuss.

Stefanos Tsitsipas could not say the same. The seventh seed saw his campaign cut short by American Aleksander Kovacevic, who posted a 6-3, 7-6 (1) win and sent one of the tournament’s headline names packing before the business end had even begun.

So Winston-Salem rolls on with storylines pulling in different directions: a veteran Australian rediscovering his edge, a compatriot given a harsh lesson, a seeded star bundled out, and a few hungry names stepping into the space that’s been cleared.

For Duckworth, the question now is simple: can this week’s revenge win become the springboard to something bigger when the lights go up in New York?