He is the 7th seed in this weekend's qualifying draw for ATP San Jose. In round 1 he faces American wildcard Jeff Gast. Gast is 17 and currently unranked, he's only played 1 match before on the pro tour - he lost 6-3, 6-1 in the first qualifying round for the Aptos challenger last July.
Auckland v Gast will be on court at 20.30 GMT tonight. If James wins he will play his second round qualifying match against Michael McClune or Brandon Couple (both American) in the small hours of Sunday morning.
The Norfolk right-hander will regard this as an excellent chance to reach an ATP main draw as the other seed in his section is American Phillip King who's ranked just over 40 places higher at 355. The last time James qualified for an ATP event was in Mumbai last September, when he went on to reach the quarter-finals.