Australia's James Duckworth bravely succumbed to world number nine Janko Tipsarevic in a gruelling four-setter in the second round of the Australian Open on Thursday.
Tipsarevic won the match 3-6, 6-2, 7-6 (7-5), 6-4 to progress to the third round where he will meet either Richard Gasquet of France, or Kazakhstan's Andrey Golubev.
But it was the 19-year-old from Sydney who wowed Margeret Court Arena as he took the ninth-seeded Serb all the way, mixing powerful forehands with deft drop shots throughout.
A big upset was on the cards when Duckworth raced away to claim the first set 6-3 as Tipsarevic looked unable to cope with the young upstart's booming groundstrokes.
But the more experienced player picked himself up to assert some dominance and win the second set 6-2.
Duckworth then showed tremendous grit to break Tipsarevic and recover from 5-3 down to level the match at 5-5, before taking the set to a tie-break, only for Tipsarevic to show his experience and edge it 7-5.
Tipsarevic then broke early in the fourth set, capping off a rally with a retreating forehand down the line to take a 4-2 lead with the shot of the match.
After looking nervy in the third set, Tipsarevic used that moment of skill as a confidence booster see out the final set 6-4.
Tags: sport, australian-open, tennis, melbourne-3000, vic, australia First posted January 19, 2012 16:10:08
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