First Aussie man falls at Australian Open as Nadal beats Duckworth
R Nadal d. J Duckworth 6-4, 6-3, 7-5
James Duckworth has become the first Australian man to bow out at Melbourne Park, going down to second seed Rafael Nadal in straight sets.
The gritty Australian grinded his way back from 2-5 down in the third set, but ultimately his high-risk,-high-reward tactics were not enough to unsettle Nadal.
Although he served 12 aces and consistently over 200 km/h, Duckworth's serve let him down in the big moments, with 11 double faults to Nadal's two.
Playing his first tour match since the 2018 US Open, Nadal needed two hours and 15 minutes to get the win on Rod Laver Arena.
"It's not easy to come back after a lot of months ... especially against a player who is playing super-aggressive," Nadal said on Monday.
"It's always very difficult to start after the injuries."
The 17-time major champion had 38 winners and only 11 unforced errors against the luckless Duckworth, who has undergone countless bouts of foot surgery in recent years.
The 26-year-old Australian won last month's Open wildcard playoff to earn his way into the main draw.
But he has now crashed out at the first hurdle at the past four majors, each time to much higher-ranked opponents in Marin Cilic, Alexander Zverev, Andy Murray and now Nadal.
Elsewhere, Bulgarian 20th seed Grigor Dmitrov overcame losing the first set to defeat Serbian veteran Janko Tipsaveric 4-6, 6-3, 6-1, 6-4 to progress to the second round and fifth seed Kevin Anderson also needed four sets to beat Frenchman Adrian Mannarino, 6-3, 5-7, 6-2, 6-1.
MORE TO COME
with AAP