Australian James Duckworth has suffered defeat in his maiden ATP Tour final in Kazakhstan, losing in straight sets to South Korean Kwon Soon-woo. Nick Tsagaris McDonalds | Nick Tsagaris

1. James
Duckworth
beaten in
maiden ATP
Tour final

2. James Duckworth's run of
nine-straight matches came
to an end in his maiden ATP
Tour final
John Millman won the Astana
Open in 2020 to claim his first
ATP title

3. Australian James Duckworth has suffered
defeat in his maiden ATP Tour final in
Kazakhstan, losing in straight sets to South
Korean Kwon Soon-woo.
Duckworth, who had three set
points in the opening set tie-break,
only to drop five points on the
bounce, was left ruing missed
opportunities.

4. The Korean world number 82 broke
Duckworth twice in the second set,
claiming his first ATP crown after one
hour 36 minutes.
"Obviously I was up 6-3 in the
tiebreaker and I somehow managed to
lose that set. I probably lost my legs a
little bit in the second set," Duckworth
said.
He also earned an early break in the
second before 23-year-old Kwon hit
back.

6. It marked a huge anti-climax for Duckworth, who after an 11-year
career riddled with foot, elbow and shoulder injuries that required
eight operations, was hoping to triumph at ATP level for the first
time at the same event John Millman broke his tour duck last year.
"It is difficult right now. I am pretty shattered. I imagine in a
couple of days' time I will look at it as a positive week but today
was pretty tough," he said.

8. "I am sure it will be more positive in a
couple of days than it is right now."
Still, his reward for two excellent weeks will
be to shoot into the world's top 60 for the
first time next week, jumping from his
current ranking of 65 to 56.
"All in all, I hadn't made it past the
semi-finals before and I beat some
real quality players from the start of
the week and played some great
tennis.

9. But he missed his chance to leapfrog the 55th-ranked Millman as
Australia's number two men's player, behind Alex de Minaur.
De Minaur is set to drop to number 26 when the latest ATP
standings are released on Monday after struggling for form of late.

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