James Duckworth hopes his best tennis remains ahead of him after departing the US Open with a rankings boost, a healthy body and a big pay cheque.
Duckworth was left disappointed at not being able to drag 20th seed Dan Evans into a fifth set in a 6-3 6-2 4-6 6-4 second round loss to the Brit on Thursday.
“I started playing some alright tennis in the third and fourth sets. The first two were pretty bad,” he said.
“Up a break in the fourth and was pretty unlucky the game I got broken.”
Still, the 30-year-old is set to jump eight spots in the rankings to world No.75, almost certainly ensuring him direct entry to the first grand slam of 2022 in Melbourne.
Duckworth had dropped from a career-high No.46 in January.
He has plenty of points over the next four months after a sizzling finish to 2021 but finally feels like he can at least trust his body.
The Sydneysider has endured multiple bouts of surgery to keep his career afloat and, apart from leaving New York with $US121,000 ($A168,000), Duckworth says he feels physically great.
“I take a lot of positives with my body. I was really happy with how my body was. I’m feeling way better than I was even a month ago,” he said.
“Moving pretty well and my tennis slowly getting better. I feel like I’m getting better every week. It’s positive. I’ve still got a bit to go but it’s good stuff.”
He plans to play a mixture of Challenger and ATP events to finish his season.
“The goal now is to just finish the year healthy and rankings-wise try and get as close to top 100 as possible,” Duckworth said.
“And hopefully kick off the Aussie Open in a decent spot.”
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