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AUSTRALIAN OPEN

January 17, 2016

James Duckworth

Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Do you think you've ever played a bigger match to this point in your career?
JAMES DUCKWORTH: Yes, right now this is probably the biggest one I've played. Yeah, should be a packed house here on Rod Laver. Lleyton's last Australian Open.

Q. How did you feel when you were plucked out of the hat?
JAMES DUCKWORTH: Yeah, range of different emotions. It's pretty weird playing him. Looked up to him for a long time. Watched him win Grand Slams, be world No. 1 when I was younger. He's helped me out a lot over the last few years, stuff on and off the court.

Yeah, so it will be a little bit awkward, a little strange. Got to try to put all of that out of my mind and concentrate on the match.

Q. Do you feel you might be the away player in the Australian Open?
JAMES DUCKWORTH: I don't think I'll have the same sort of support that I've had in previous having 99% of the crowd going for me. Hopefully a couple people will still be cheering for me.

Q. Have you had any contact with Lleyton since the draw and what was said?
JAMES DUCKWORTH: We've seen each other a couple times. Just sort of laughed about it. Carried on as normal. Yeah, still good mates. I'm sure we'll be good mates afterwards, as well.

Q. What do you think the match will do for your profile, prime time exposure?
JAMES DUCKWORTH: Hopefully I get a few more Twitter followers (smiling).

Yeah, it will be cool. People will know my name, know who I am. Hopefully see me play some good tennis. That would be nice.

Q. Does that opportunity excite you? How important is it for you to show your best on this stage?
JAMES DUCKWORTH: Yeah, I'm excited to play on a big court. Not sure what time yet. I think there's probably a good chance it could be at night. I'm excited to play in front of a big crowd, a lot of viewers on TV.

Q. A lot of talk about Hewitt. How do you feel you're tracking at the moment?
JAMES DUCKWORTH: Yeah, played pretty well the last month or so. Had a decent sort of training block, then played the wild card playoff, gradually got better through that. Played a couple good matches in Brisbane and Sydney, played some good doubles as well.

I'm feeling good, pretty confident with the way I'm hitting the ball right now.

Q. New coach. Anything changed at all?
JAMES DUCKWORTH: Not a whole lot. Still very similar sort of messages. The only reason we changed was moving down here to Melbourne. I was happy with the academy and base I had up in Brisbane. He and Mark are quite similar. They're both sort of on the same page with the way they want me to play and the way they need me to play, so there's not a whole lot of change there.

Q. Do you have a favorite Lleyton Hewitt memory?
JAMES DUCKWORTH: The whole run in 2005 was pretty cool. I was watching all them, the five-setters against Rafa, Nalbandian. I was pretty gutted when he lost in the final, as well.

Q. How would it sit with you to end the career of Lleyton Hewitt?
JAMES DUCKWORTH: I thought that one might come (smiling).

It's not something that I'd like to do. But sort of been put in this position now. Yeah, I mean, I guess if I win, I'll apologize to him. But, yeah, I'm going to have to sort of put that out of my mind and go out there and try to play my game, give it my best shot.

Q. Could wreck your Davis Cup chances as well.
JAMES DUCKWORTH: Hopefully not (laughter). That all of a sudden makes it a bit strange having him as the Davis Cup captain now. Yeah, hopefully he'll look past the match.

Q. Is that something you think is realistic this year, Davis Cup?
JAMES DUCKWORTH: Yeah. I'm going to give myself the best possible chance, whether it be singles or doubles. I'd love to get a run at some stage and I'll be working as hard as I can to do that.

Q. In a couple of words, how would you describe Kyrgios and Tomic?
JAMES DUCKWORTH: Entertaining. I like watching them both play. Good shot makers. They're talented. Great players. I think they both can be strong contenders in Grand Slams in the next few years.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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