Alex de Minaur Exits Early as Dane Sweeny Shines at US Open
Alex de Minaur walked off Louis Armstrong Stadium staring at the court, not the crowd. A season that began with top-10 momentum and genuine grand slam ambitions now has him fighting to stay in that elite company.
The world No.7 was bundled out of the US Open in the second round on Friday (AEST), beaten 6-4, 7-5, 6-2 by Botic van de Zandschulp, a dangerous Dutchman who has turned Flushing Meadows into his personal hunting ground before. For de Minaur, it capped his least productive grand slam year in three seasons and his earliest loss in New York in five years.
“My level today wasn’t good enough. It’s pretty straightforward,” he said, not dressing it up.
He tried to compete, he insisted. Tried to stay positive. Tried to fight. The ball simply refused to obey.
“I was making a lot of errors, which is not really my normal game style,” he said. “It felt like the more I tried, the more intensity, the more fired up I was getting, I just kept on making unforced errors … [it was] a tough day at the office.”
For a player who has built his reputation on clean patterns, relentless defence and mental steel, this was a messy, disjointed afternoon.
A season tilting the wrong way
The numbers tell the story. De Minaur has lost this early in a major only twice in his past 13 appearances. He opened the year with a second Australian Open quarter-final, then plateaued: third round at Roland-Garros, fourth round at Wimbledon, and now gone before the first weekend in New York, where he had reached the last eight in each of the past two years.
Since February, he has advanced beyond the quarter-finals at any tournament just once. The slide has been gradual, but it has gathered weight.
His serve, long under the microscope, cracked again. Seven double faults, only four aces, 11 break points faced, five service games surrendered. Against a heavy hitter like van de Zandschulp, that is a recipe for punishment.
The turning points were there, then vanished.
He double-faulted to fall a set and 4-3 down, only for a streak of luck to briefly jolt him back into the contest. Chasing furiously, he clipped the net cord with a backhand that died past van de Zandschulp for a winner, giving him 15-40 and a glimmer of momentum. He broke, held, and suddenly he was the one edging ahead.
But the pressure game at 5-5 in the second set became a microcosm of his year: long, tense, full of chances, no payoff. De Minaur saved four break points, only to surrender on the fifth. Van de Zandschulp, who had apologised a point earlier for a mishit ball that dropped short and gifted him a passing chance, walked away with the set and the match in a stranglehold.
From two sets down, history stood against the Australian. He had never overturned that deficit in 27 attempts. That mark is now 0-from-28.
He ducked off court between sets, tried to reset, then promptly flayed a forehand long in the third game to drop serve again. Two break-back chances came and went in the next game. When van de Zandschulp broke him once more, the contest was effectively over.
On paper, this result registers as an upset. In reality, the Dutchman arrived in better touch and with a proven New York pedigree, having knocked out Carlos Alcaraz here in the same round two years ago. He had never beaten de Minaur in four previous meetings. This time, he barely flinched.
For de Minaur, who spoke in July about his Wimbledon loss to Flavio Cobolli “breaking” him inside, the US Open has provided no balm. His top-10 ranking is now under threat in the coming weeks, and with it the aura he had painstakingly built.
Sweeny’s breakthrough on tennis’s biggest stage
While de Minaur’s campaign unravelled, another Australian seized the spotlight. On an outside court, far from the stadium lights, wildcard Dane Sweeny produced the win of his life.
Ranked 123 in the world, just 170 centimetres tall and more familiar with qualifying events than main draws, Sweeny stunned Italian star Lorenzo Musetti 3-6, 6-1, 6-2, 6-2 to reach the third round of a grand slam for the first time and claim his maiden top-20 scalp.
This was not a straightforward upset. It was a grind, then a rout.
Musetti, a dual grand slam semi-finalist, took the opening set and looked in control before his body began to betray him. Across the final three sets he slumped over between points, hunched in the corner, clearly unwell. He left the court for a medical timeout at 3-0 down in the third set, returned with flashes of resistance, but never truly recovered.
Sweeny did not blink. He kept swinging, kept running, kept making one more ball. When Musetti offered a break back, Sweeny snatched it. When the Italian’s level dipped, the Australian slammed the door.
Little in Sweeny’s career to date has come easily. Two years ago, worn down by a form slump just as he felt on the verge of breaking through, he stepped away from the sport for several months. On Friday in New York, that decision to return felt vindicated.
“I’m so grateful to be able to even compete in grand slams,” he said. “The tennis journey is such a rollercoaster, and I’m so incredibly grateful to play in front of an awesome crowd and to soak up this moment. To win, and to get a couple of wins, is awesome.”
He spoke like a man who has lived the grind, not just talked about it.
“Tennis can change on the flip of a coin,” he said. “You’ve just got to keep persevering, and that’s what I did. I wasn’t getting results for a long while, but there’s a law of probability. I knew it was somehow going to swing in my favour if I just kept going, and I did. Now I’m here, and it’s the best decision I ever made to come back after that two months.”
Sweeny’s only previous experience at this level came in January, when Ben Shelton swept him aside in straight sets in the second round of the Australian Open. Now he is guaranteed more than $400,000 in prize money, a provisional career-high live ranking of No.109, and another crack at a seeded Italian in the third round: Luciano Darderi.
He was not even meant to be in the main draw. Sweeny had been scheduled to play US Open qualifying until late withdrawals nudged Alexei Popyrin directly into the main field and transferred Tennis Australia’s reciprocal wildcard to him. He turned that opportunity into his first grand slam win outside Melbourne Park when Corentin Moutet retired hurt while trailing 7-6 (7-4), 6-4, 3-0.
Now he has backed it up with a statement win that reshapes his season, perhaps his career.
Kyrgios suspended as Australian fortunes split
Away from the courts, Australian tennis absorbed another jolt. The International Tennis Integrity Agency confirmed that Nick Kyrgios had accepted a one-month suspension for out-of-competition use of cocaine, reduced from three months after he agreed to enter a treatment program.
Kyrgios had already apologised publicly to family, friends and fans after his provisional suspension became public last month, calling it a “huge mistake”. He admitted to using cocaine socially on a night out before competing in Mallorca, and has forfeited his prize money and ranking points from that event.
His suspension officially ended on Thursday, contingent on him completing the program. Even from a distance, he still shapes the conversation. Former doubles partner and long-time rival Stefanos Tsitsipas said after his own first-round win that the news did not surprise him and that he was aware of the situation.
On court, the Australian men’s fortunes veered between promise and frustration.
Qualifier Tristan Schoolkate threatened to echo Sweeny’s heroics when he snatched the first set from Roland-Garros finalist Flavio Cobolli, only for the No.5 seed to steady and win 3-6, 6-3, 6-4, 7-5.
Popyrin, who had benefitted from those late withdrawals to skip qualifying, started brightly before fading in a 2-6, 7-6 (7-4), 7-6 (7-3), 6-2 defeat to 25th seed Alejandro Tabilo. His body language sagged as the Chilean left-hander tightened his grip, another opportunity slipping away.
Elsewhere, the chaos of the day stretched well beyond the Australians. Third seed Felix Auger-Aliassime fell in four sets to Karen Khachanov, a result that ripped another hole in the men’s draw. Coco Gauff, Iga Swiatek, Taylor Fritz and Naomi Osaka all advanced, calmly sidestepping the carnage.
One star searching, one upstart rising
So the Australian singles hopes in New York now rest, improbably, on Dane Sweeny. The wildcard who nearly missed the cut is still standing. The top-10 player who arrived expecting a deep run is gone.
De Minaur will leave Flushing Meadows with questions about his serve, his confidence and the fragility that has crept into his biggest matches. Sweeny will walk back through the gates with a different problem: how to keep riding the wave he has finally caught.
For one, this fortnight has become a line in the sand. For the other, it might be the start of something far bigger than a surprise run in late summer.
