{"id":601885,"date":"2026-05-24T19:55:16","date_gmt":"2026-05-24T19:55:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/601885\/"},"modified":"2026-05-24T19:55:16","modified_gmt":"2026-05-24T19:55:16","slug":"james-duckworth-the-first-winner-at-french-open-after-injury-retirement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/601885\/","title":{"rendered":"James Duckworth the first winner at French Open after injury retirement"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australian James Duckworth has become the first player to advance at this year’s French Open after his opponent Gabriel Diallo pulled out injured in the second set of their opening-day encounter.<\/p>\n

The 82nd-ranked Duckworth took the first set 6-3 against his 49th-ranked rival in 43 minutes at Roland-Garros.<\/p>\n

Duckworth then raced out to a 4-1 lead in the second set, but Diallo was struggling to keep up as his fitness issues deepened.<\/p>\n

The Canadian had been battling lower back problems leading into the tournament and had reportedly cut a finger on a glass bottle just days before this first-round match.<\/p>\n

\"James<\/p>\n

James Duckworth is through to the second round at Roland-Garros for the second time in his career. (Getty Images: Getty Images: Dan Istitene)<\/p>\n

Duckworth will now meet 27th-seeded Spanish young gun Rafael Jodar or American Aleksandar Kovacevic, who is ranked 67th.<\/p>\n

The 34-year-old Duckworth and 24-year-old Diallo each held their serve early in the first set before Duckworth secured the first break \u2014 to 15 \u2014 to go up 4-2, after Diallo put a backhand into the net under pressure.<\/p>\n

ABC Sport Daily podcast<\/a><\/p>\n

ABC Sport Daily is your daily sports conversation. We dive into the biggest story of the day and get you up to speed with everything else that’s making headlines.<\/p>\n

Duckworth rode his advantage by holding to love. Diallo held to 15 for 5-3, but the Australian retained his composure to hold to 15 for the first set.<\/p>\n

The second set became a procession. Diallo survived two break points to hold in the first game, but Duckworth broke him in the third and and again for 4-1, before the Canadian withdrew.<\/p>\n

Duckworth, ranked 82nd, progressed to the second round of the clay court major for the first time since 2021 and just the second time in his career.<\/p>\n

Thirteen Australians, seven men and six women, are competing in the singles at the tournament.\u00a0<\/p>\n

AAP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australian James Duckworth has become the first player to advance at this year’s French Open after his opponent…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":601886,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[7384,21626,88949,101,118,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-601885","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-french-open","tag-gabriel-diallo","tag-james-duckworth","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601885","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=601885"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601885\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/601886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=601885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=601885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=601885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}