Alex de Minaur has become the latest victim in a string of early upsets at the US Open as fellow Aussie Dane Sweeny scored an incredible win over 13th seed Lorenzo Musetti. World No.7 de Minaur crashed out in straight sets after a shock loss to Botic van de Zandschulp 4-6 5-7 2-6.
De Minaur appeared to struggle with having to play twice in two days after his first-round match was postponed until day four due to wet weather. It’s his earliest exit at Flushing Meadows in five years.
Dane Sweeny (R) beat Lorenzo Musetti, while Alex de Minaur (L) and Felix Auger-Aliassime (centre) crashed out of the US Open. Image: AAP/Getty
The Aussie’s loss came after World No.4 Felix Auger-Aliassime was also dumped out in the second round. And 13th seed Lorenzo Musetti was stunned by another Aussie in Dane Sweeny.
Sweeny scored the biggest win of his blossoming career with a 3-6 6-1 6-2 6-2 victory over the two-time grand slam semi-finalist. The 25-year-old has now won five matches in a row after going through qualifying just to make the main draw at Flushing Meadows. His reward for making the third round in New York is a life-changing payday of $US290,000 ($A402,750).
It’s almost half of what the unheralded Aussie has earned throughout his entire career so far. And it’s a just reward after he considered quitting professional tennis but decided to push on.
Dane Sweeny celebrates after beating Lorenzo Musetti at the US Open. (Photo by KENA BETANCUR / AFP via Getty Images)
“Tennis can change at the flip of a coin, you’ve just got to keep persevering, and that’s what I did,” he said on court after the win. “I wasn’t getting results for a long while, but the law of probability, I knew it was going to swing in my favour if I just kept going, and I did. Now I’m here. Best decision I ever made to come back after that two months (away).
“I’m so grateful to be able to compete in grand slams, I put a lot of work in. Tennis such a rollercoaster, I’m so incredibly grateful to play in front of this crowd, tand to soak up the win… it’s awesome.”
It looked like Tristan Schoolkate and Alexei Popyrin might join Sweeny in the third round when they both won the first set against fifth seed Flavio Cobolli and Alejandro Tabilo (25) respectively. But Cobolli and Tabilo managed to right the ship and fight back to win in four sets.
It leaves Sweeny as the only Aussie remaining in the singles draw.
Felix Auger-Aliassime joins carnage for seeded players
De Minaur and Musetti weren’t the only big-name casualties on Friday as Auger-Aliassime suffered a shock loss to Russian veteran Karen Khachanov. The unseeded Khachanov beat World No.4 Auger-Aliaissime 6-7 (5) 6-3 6-2 6-2.
Auger-Aliassime – the third seed at the US Open due to Jannik Sinner’s absence – said he began feeling unwell in the middle of the second set. “I just couldn’t feel well and was dizzy and seeing spots and couldn’t recover. I thought maybe it would pass, but it didn’t,” the Canadian said.
Karen Khachanov beat third seed Felix Auger-Aliassime at the US Open. (Photo by Matthew Stockman/Getty Images)
“I’m going to run some tests and see what comes out of it. I cannot beat him or or anybody in this draw feeling the way I felt today. So, if I cannot move, we’re not talking about tennis here. So, it’s unfortunate.”
De Minaur, Auger-Aliassime and Musetti joined a plethora of seeded players to crash out before the third round. Novak Djokovic (4), Arthur Fils (10), Rafael Jodar (12), Brandon Nakashima (16), Andrey Rublev (23), Cameron Norrie (29), Matteo Arnaldi (30) and Ignacio Buse (32) also lost early, while Casper Ruud (19) withdrew before his first match.
On the women’s side, Belinda Bencic (12), Maja Chwalinska (20), Barbora Krejcikova (27), Sara Bejlek (28) and Jelana Ostapenko (30) were all dumped out.