Australian James Duckworth enjoyed a hugely successful junior tennis career and has since impressed at the top level too. His biggest senior result to date has been reaching the quarter-finals of the doubles tournament at the 2020 Australian Open. He has also been a regular competitor at all four Grand Slam events for 10 years, reaching the third round of Wimbledon in 2021. Later that year, he was also runner-up at the 2021 Astana Open in Kazakhstan. Both results helped him to break into the Top 50 of the singles rankings for the first time.

Duckworth was born in Sydney and is a lifelong tennis fan and player. His talent helped to win a scholarship to the Australian Institute of Sport where he developed his game as a teenager. He played his first professional match aged 14 and went on to win numerous junior titles at home and abroad, ultimately becoming one of the 10 highest-rated junior players in the world. He made his Grand Slam debut aged 19, at the 2012 Australian Open, and just over a year later, had entered the Top 150 of the world rankings.

Throughout the rest of the 2010s, Duckworth continued to win Challenger and Futures titles, working his way steadily up the rankings. After an enforced break for foot surgery in 2017, he returned to winning ways, and by 2021, he was representing Australia at the Tokyo Olympics and reaching Masters 1000 quarter-finals for the first time in his career.