James Duckworth beat second seed Luciano Darderi 7-5, 7-6(7) in the second round of the Almaty Open, saving a set point in the tie-break. The 34-year-old Australian claimed his first top-30 win of 2026 and now meets Stefanos Tsitsipas in the quarter-finals.
Almaty, Kazakhstan: Luciano Darderi arrived on court as the world No. 23, the second seed and a player 50 places above his opponent. He left it beaten in two sets by a veteran who had lost four matches in a row before returning to a tournament that has treated him well.
Serving at altitude
Duckworth made the first set his with a 7-5 scoreline and then held his nerve through a second set in which neither man could be separated before the tie-break. Reports of the match put his serving at the centre of it: he hit 17 aces, struck 37 winners and won 44 of 50 points on his first serve.
The tie-break went to 9-7. Duckworth saved a set point along the way, according to the ATP Tour, and closed it 7-6(7) to finish the match in straight sets on the indoor hard courts.
A tournament that suits him
Almaty has been kind to the Australian. He reached the semi-finals here in 2025, beating Cobolli, then the world No. 22, along the way, and his only ATP final came at this event in 2021, when it was staged in Astana. After the win he praised the tournament’s hospitality and said indoor play at altitude suits his game.
The victory is his best of the season. His previous high point in 2026 was a run to the semi-finals at Winston-Salem in August. It is also his second ATP quarter-final in two months.
Tsitsipas awaits
The reward is a meeting with seventh seed Stefanos Tsitsipas, who beat the home favourite Mikhail Kukushkin 6-1, 6-2 in just over an hour in what was Kukushkin’s last tour-level event. Tsitsipas had earlier come through a tie-break against Kovacevic in the first round.
Elsewhere in the draw, Adrian Mannarino, who beat fourth seed Andrey Rublev earlier on Wednesday, meets Nikoloz Basilashvili in the last eight.
Result: James Duckworth (AUS) bt Luciano Darderi (ITA, 2) 7-5, 7-6(7), Almaty Open (ATP 250), second round, Wednesday 21 October 2026.
Next: Duckworth v Stefanos Tsitsipas (7), quarter-final.
