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7 November 2016 | Tennis ACT

James Duckworth (NSW) is the 2016 Apis Canberra International champion, after taking out the men’s singles title today, 7-5, 6-3.

The 24-year-old said he was happy how the match played out, despite a tough opponent in fellow Aussie Marc Polmans (VIC).

“Marc’s a really good competitor and he made me fight for every point,” he said. “I’m thrilled to get the win.”

Duckworth continued, “He’s [Polmans] renowned for his fighting qualities and that’s how he got to the final. Every match he’s just turned up, and then battled and I knew he was going to be like that today, so I knew I had to play well to win.”

Despite a difficult year with four months off injured, Duckworth has worked hard to get back into form, now with two ATP Challenger titles to his name.

“I was out for four months and my ranking dropped quite a bit,” he said. “It’s been tough to try and get my ranking back up and I feel like I’m playing some good tennis. I’m 99 per cent healthy and I think that’s the main thing.”

After today’s match, Duckworth will move to 130 in the world. Polmans started 2016 as 843 in the world yet after today’s match, the highest level of his career-to-date, Polmans will move to world No. 212.

Fellow New South Welshman Jordan Thompson teamed up with Luke Saville (SA) to claim the doubles title a day earlier in straight sets, 6-2, 6-3.

South Australian player and world No. 167 in doubles, Saville, said he was happy with the way he and Thompson played today and in the lead up to the final round.

“It really was tricky conditions all week actually, but we saved our best match till last, I thought we played really sharp doubles today,” he said.

Saville continued, “Jordan has been playing very well in the singles and that’s been carrying over into the doubles. Matt Reid and John Patrick Smith are a really quality doubles team so it was a good win for us today.

The finals day was a fitting finale for an event that has over the past week given local tennis fans the opportunity to attend and watch some of the world’s best from across the globe compete for USD$100,000 in prize money and valuable world ranking points.