James Duckworth pounces over Brydan Klein to reach the final four – Caloundra International 2012 Ch
Third seed, James Duckworth of Australia, got the better of his compatriot, Brydan Klein, in mouth-watering three sets at the Caloundra International 2012 on Friday. He clobbered a 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 success over the 22-year-old to secure a spot in the semi-finals
at this hard court tournament taking place in Queensland, Australia.
The local seed put up a solid display of tennis to outmuscle the world number 450 at the Caloundra Tennis Club in their second meeting. After outshining his opponent in this two hours and 21-minutes battle, Duckworth not only advanced into the last four
but also avenged his defeat at the Australia F3 two years ago.
Klein stormed into the Australian hard courts and drew the first blood in the opening game to take the initial lead. In spite of levelling the scores in the eighth game, the unseeded Aussie converted another break chance to his advantage in the succeeding
game and then held his serve to clinch the opener with a 6-4 score line.
The 20-year-old sought the $50,000 track in the following set and held his opening serve with conviction. The higher ranked Aussie then comfortably plucked in remaining serves after warding off both breakpoints he encountered. Duckworth got the breakthrough
in the sixth game and bagged the equaliser with a 6-3 win.
Ranked 210th in the South African Airways ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) World Tour Rankings, Duckworth went out of control in the final set when it matter the most. He quickly swiped in the opening four games successively before Klein
could hold on. Regardless of losing his serve in the sixth game, the seed unleashed his skills again and ended the decider by winning six games to two. Duckworth found 10 break opportunities in this set and spectacularly clicked 10 out of 13 points on his
slightly lower first serve share.
Next up for the high flying contender is the second seed, Marinko Matosevic, who battled past the German challenger, Sebastian Rieschick, in brutal three sets to secure this spot. Matosevic lost his serve six times but capitalised on six out of 12 break
opportunities to prevail.
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