Dane Sweeny Shocks Lorenzo Musetti at US Open

Dane Sweeny didn’t just win a tennis match in New York. He tore up the script.

A little-known Australian wildcard, standing 170cm and ranked more than 100 places below his opponent, walked onto court against Lorenzo Musetti, the 14th seed and a dual grand slam semi-finalist, and walked off with the biggest victory of his life.

The scoreline said 3-6, 6-1, 6-2, 6-2. It barely captured the shock.

Sweeny turns the tide

For a set, the hierarchy held. Musetti’s clean ball-striking and pedigree carried the opener 6-3, and it looked like a routine day for one of the sport’s rising names.

Then Sweeny ripped the match away from him.

The Australian began to dictate with fearless intent, stepping inside the baseline, taking time away, and dragging Musetti into rallies he didn’t want. The response was brutal: 6-1 to Sweeny in the second set, the Italian suddenly the one scrambling, stretching, searching.

The pressure told early in the third. Sweeny surged to a double-break lead at 3-0, running Musetti ragged and forcing the 14th seed into a medical time-out as he looked increasingly distressed. Even when Musetti clawed one break back, the frustration boiled over, the Italian repeatedly turning to his box in animated protest as Sweeny kept hammering away.

From there, the wildcard never loosened his grip. He closed out the third 6-2, then repeated the dose in the fourth, 6-2 again, bossing exchanges and smothering any hint of a comeback. Musetti, a semi-finalist at Wimbledon and Roland Garros in the past two years, had been bullied off the court by a man chasing his first real foothold at this level.

Sweeny’s reward is enormous: a place in the third round of a grand slam for the first time, a guaranteed pay day of $US290,000 ($A402,750), and a rankings rise to at least No.115 in the world. More importantly, he has a statement win that announces him on the sport’s biggest stage.

And he did it still carrying the scars of the grind. After his first-round win, he’d been seen with a huge ice pack strapped to his right elbow. Against Musetti, he threw himself around the court anyway, diving at the net for acrobatic volleys in a manner that evoked Boris Becker, refusing to give an inch.

"I'm just grateful to be even able to compete in grand slams. The tennis journey is such a rollercoaster," Sweeny said. "And to soak up the atmosphere and get a win, a couple of wins, in front of this crowd, is awesome."

Next up is another Italian, world No.22 Luciano Darderi, on Saturday (AEST). The stage only gets bigger.

Schoolkate’s run halted in the heat

For a time, it seemed Sweeny might have company in the third round.

Tristan Schoolkate, who had battled through qualifying, rode that momentum into a fearless start against Flavio Cobolli, pinching the first set 6-3 and threatening another upset in New York’s searing summer conditions.

Cobolli, the fifth seed and this year’s French Open runner-up, steadied. Class began to show in the margins. The Italian tightened his serve, cut down the errors, and gradually wrested back control as the heat and the workload caught up with the Australian.

Cobolli hit back 6-3 in the second, edged the third 6-4, and then closed out a tight fourth 7-5 to seal victory after two hours and 41 minutes. Schoolkate’s inspired run ended there, but not before he had announced himself as another Australian capable of troubling the established order.

Popyrin falls short in tiebreak tension

On another court, Alexei Popyrin was chasing a familiar feeling.

Two years ago, he stunned Novak Djokovic in the third round of the US Open. This time, he stood one win away from the last 32 again, facing 25th seed Alejandro Tabilo in a match loaded with opportunity.

Popyrin flew out of the blocks, taking the first set 6-2 with heavy serving and aggressive baseline play. The pattern looked promising. The margins, though, narrowed quickly.

Tabilo dug in. The Chilean matched Popyrin blow for blow and dragged the contest into two knife-edge tiebreaks. Those moments defined the night. Tabilo played them with greater clarity and nerve, edging the second-set breaker 7-4 and repeating the trick 7-3 in the third.

Once those two sets slipped away, the momentum was gone. Tabilo surged through the fourth 6-2 to close out a 2-6, 7-6 (7-4), 7-6 (7-3), 6-2 win and book what is likely to be a third-round showdown with German top seed Alexander Zverev.

For Popyrin, it was another reminder of how thin the line can be at this level: two tiebreaks from a very different story.

De Minaur waits in the wings

While Sweeny grabbed the headlines, Australia’s standard-bearer still had his turn to come.

Sixth seed Alex de Minaur was scheduled to face Dutchman Botic van de Zandschulp on The Grandstand after Schoolkate’s match, with his own US Open campaign gathering pace.

On a day when one Australian underdog toppled a top-15 seed and two others pushed higher-ranked opponents deep into the heat, Sweeny’s breakthrough hinted at something larger: a new wave willing to chase, dive, and scrap their way into the sport’s elite.

New York noticed. Now the question is how far this run, and this generation, can really go.