Dane Sweeny stuns Lorenzo Musetti at Flushing Meadows
Dane Sweeny, all 170 centimetres of him, walked into Flushing Meadows as a wildcard and walked off Arthur Ashe Court as the story of the day.
The 25-year-old Australian produced the win of his life, dismantling 14th seed Lorenzo Musetti 3-6, 6-1, 6-2, 6-2 in a ferocious second-round ambush that turned a routine afternoon for the Italian into a full-blown crisis.
This was supposed to be straightforward. Musetti, a dual grand slam semi-finalist and world No 14, against a player ranked more than 100 places below him. Instead, it became a real-life David-versus-Goliath tale, with Sweeny swinging freely and landing almost everything.
He started slowly. Musetti took the first set 6-3, using his class and variety to keep Sweeny on the back foot. Then the match flipped.
Sweeny tore into the second set, ripping through it 6-1. He began to dictate with his legs and his nerve, chasing everything, refusing to give Musetti room to breathe. The Italian suddenly looked rushed, then rattled, and eventually overwhelmed.
The pressure finally told early in the third. Sweeny broke twice to surge 3-0 ahead, sending Musetti into visible distress. The 14th seed called for a medical time-out, clearly struggling as he sat courtside while the trainers worked on him. He clawed one break back, but the damage – mentally and on the scoreboard – had been done.
Musetti, a Wimbledon and French Open semi-finalist in the past two years, spent much of the closing stretch gesturing angrily towards his box, searching for answers that never came. Sweeny kept giving him questions instead.
The Australian, who had sported a huge ice pack on his right elbow after his first-round win, showed no sign of physical limitation. He threw himself around the court, diving at the net in full flight, channelling Boris Becker with acrobatic volleys that drew gasps from the New York crowd. Each successful lunge fuelled his belief, each roar from the stands pushed him further.
From 3-6 down in sets, Sweeny swept through the next three 6-1, 6-2, 6-2, running Musetti ragged and bullying the seed into submission. By the end, the Italian’s shoulders had dropped, his resistance broken, while Sweeny bounced on his toes, soaking in the moment.
The reward is enormous. A place in the third round of a grand slam for the first time. A guaranteed cheque of $US290,000. A projected rise to a career-high ranking of at least No 115 in the world. And another shot at an Italian, world No 22 Luciano Darderi, on Saturday.
“I’m just grateful to be even able to compete in grand slams. The tennis journey is such a rollercoaster,” Sweeny said courtside. “And to soak up the atmosphere and get a win, a couple of wins, in front of this crowd, is awesome.”
For a while, it looked like an Australian surge might sweep across the grounds.
Tristan Schoolkate, who had fought his way through qualifying, threatened another upset when he grabbed the opening set against French Open runner-up Flavio Cobolli. In brutal New York heat, Schoolkate swung freely and took the first set 6-3, pushing the fifth seed onto the back foot.
Cobolli responded like a man who’s been deep in the second week of a major. He tightened up his game, cut out the errors and slowly turned the screw. The Italian took the next three sets 6-3, 6-4, 7-5, closing out the contest after two hours and 41 minutes and ending Schoolkate’s inspired run.
On another court, Alexei Popyrin relived a familiar frustration in New York.
Two years after stunning Novak Djokovic in the third round, he again looked poised for a charge when he tore through the first set 6-2 against Chilean 25th seed Alejandro Tabilo. Popyrin had the rhythm, the weight of shot, and the early advantage.
Tabilo refused to yield. He held firm on serve, dragged the contest into tiebreaks and owned the big points when they arrived. The Chilean edged the second-set breaker 7-4, then repeated the trick in the third 7-3. With Popyrin reeling from those missed chances, Tabilo pounced, racing away 6-2 in the fourth to seal a 2-6, 7-6 (7-4), 7-6 (7-3), 6-2 win and likely book a third-round clash with top seed Alexander Zverev.
What began as a potential Australian trio in the last 32 ended with one man standing.
That man is Dane Sweeny, the diminutive wildcard who dived, scrapped and swung his way past a top-15 seed and into the biggest match of his life.
Elsewhere, Australia’s sixth seed Alex de Minaur was slated to face Dutchman Botic van de Zandschulp on The Grandstand, with Sweeny’s breakthrough adding an extra charge to an already significant day for Australian tennis in New York.
