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AFTER two long years and a depressing string of injuries, fate has finally favoured James Duckworth.

Repeatedly sidelined with elbow and foot issues since the 2016 Australian Open, the Sydneysider refused to surrender as his ranking — and career prospects — nosedived.

On the cusp of French Open qualifying deadline, Duckworth finally caught a break.

Wimbledon runner-up Milos Raonic abandoned his Roland Garros campaign, withdrawing from the second grand slam of the season, gifting Duckworth a promotion.
Using a protected ranking of No.105, Duckworth was the first player on the alternate list — and was elevated into the main draw.

Formerly ranked No.82 in the world, Duckworth returns to the French Open field proper for the first time since 2015.

Joining Nick Kyrgios, John Millman, Jordan Thompson, Matt Ebden and Alex De Minaur, Duckworth has not appeared on the regular tour since losing in the second round of Australian Open qualifying.
The right-hander, who is actually ranked No.1067, had foot surgery in January last year.

The previous year, he tore a flexor tendon in his right elbow after the Australian Open — then broke his left wrist doing sprints.

The hard-working baseliner’s return coincides with the start of qualifying in Paris, where Bernard Tomic and Thanasi Kokkinakis are due to lead a seven-player Australian contingent.
Tomic is back inside the top 200 after reaching a Challenger final, while Kokkinakis returns for the first time since injuring his left knee in an accident the Monte Carlo Masters.

Akira Santillan, Marc Polmans, Alex Bolt, John-Patrick Smith and Jason Kubler are also entered in qualifying.

Women’s qualifying starts on Tuesday.

Australia has five women in the main draw — Ash Barty, Sam Stosur, Daria Gavrilova, Ajla Tomljanovic and wildcard playoff winner Isabelle Wallace.
Indian tennis players had mixed fortunes with Prajnesh Gunneswaran being the only one to win his match as the qualifying rounds got under way at the French Open 2018 in Paris on Monday. Both Ramkumar Ramanathan and Sumit Nagal failed to cross the first hurdle.

Gunneswaran beat Salvatore Caruso of Italy 6-4, 6-4 in 1 hour 32 minutes. The 12th seeded Ramanathan fought back in vain from a set down to ultimately go down 3-6, 7-5, 1-6 to Jay Clarke while the 20-year-old Nagal squandered a one-set lead to surrender 6-4, 4-6, 1-6 to the 10th seeded Martin Klizan.

The 28-year-old Gunneswaran has recently enjoyed a good run of form. He turned out to be the Davis Cup hero for India when he beat the reigning US Open junior champion Yibing Wu to help India progress to the World Group play-offs.

The southpaw carried that form into the ATP Challenger circuit to taste glory at the Kunming Open. That pushed him up to a career-high ranking of 175th.

The World No. 183 next faces the 32nd seed Marcelo Arévalo of El Salvador. The Indian needs to win a couple more rounds to get a chance to play the main draw of the claycourt Slam.

At 225, Great Britain’s Jay Clarke is placed more than a 100 places below the 121st ranked Ramanathan. The latter still found the going tough and conceded six breaks of serve to lose the match in 1 hour 51 minutes.

Nagal made a bright start against an opponent who has recently beaten Novak Djokovic. The World No. 117, however, found his rhythm to come back from a set down and get the win in 2 hours 1 minute.

Tough debut for Raina
Meanwhile, the 277th ranked Ankita Raina has a tough opponent in her Grand Slam debut on Tuesday. She faces the 10th seed and World No. 116 Evgeniya Rodina in her first round.

The two have crossed swords only once before at the $25, 000 ITF tournament in Chiasso in 2016, where the Indian was outclassed 2-6, 0-6.