{"id":66766,"date":"2026-09-06T03:17:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-06T03:17:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/66766\/"},"modified":"2026-09-06T03:17:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-06T03:17:12","slug":"dane-sweenys-career-changing-us-open-comes-to-an-end-along-with-australias-singles-hopes-us-open-tennis-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/66766\/","title":{"rendered":"Dane Sweeny\u2019s \u2018career-changing\u2019 US Open comes to an end \u2013 along with Australia\u2019s singles hopes | US Open Tennis 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dane Sweeny\u2019s gallant and \u201ccareer-changing\u201d US Open campaign has come to a frustrating end with a tough third-round loss to seeded Italian Luciano Darderi.<\/p>\n

Sweeny complained of a hip injury during the 6-4, 6-3, 6-3 defeat to the world No 22 that left Australia without a second-week singles hope in New York for the first time in five years.<\/p>\n

Alex de Minaur\u2019s shock second-round loss<\/a> to Botic van de Zandschulp had left Sweeny as Australia\u2019s last man standing at Flushing Meadows.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been an amazing week, a career-changing week, but I can\u2019t help but feel a bit disappointed just with today\u2019s performance,\u201d Sweeny said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just wasn\u2019t really feeling it, just not really feeling the timing and the rhythm as I have been. Just made a lot of cheap errors and that was quite frustrating.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was OK to lose a match, but I really wanted to test him more and bring a good level so I could make an absolute fight out of it. Win or lose, I wanted to really make him work for the victory at least and I wasn\u2019t able to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dane Sweeney and Luciano Darderi shake hands at the net after their third-round match. Photograph: Jerry Lai\/IMAGN IMAGES\/Reuters<\/p>\n

The world No 123 only gained a last-minute entry to the season\u2019s last slam after two late withdrawals that allowed Tennis<\/a> Australia to grant Sweeny the reciprocal wildcard they initially handed to Alexei Popyrin.<\/p>\n

And despite his disappointment, Sweeny cashed in on his good fortune, parlaying his maiden US Open main-draw appearance into a watershed run to the last 32 of a grand slam for the first time.<\/p>\n

The 25-year-old Queenslander will walk away with a life-changing cheque for $US290,000 ($A402,500) and a fresh career-high ranking.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe financial side of things, that will help with coaching and people you travel with,\u201d Sweeny said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m always investing back in my tennis. That\u2019s the number one goal, to do all I can to be the best player I can be, so I don\u2019t really worry about spending on my tennis.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Sweeny is provisionally slated to climb to No 109 in the world.<\/p>\n

If he can crack the top 100 by season\u2019s end, Sweeny will earn direct entry to the Australian Open for the first time.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s exciting too. But that will take care of itself,\u201d Sweeny said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard not to worry about that because we\u2019re indoctrinated to want that low number next to our name, but I can just focus on working hard, focus on improving.<\/p>\n

\u201cParticularly just staying really kind to myself and trying to enjoy the journey.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dane Sweeny\u2019s gallant and \u201ccareer-changing\u201d US Open campaign has come to a frustrating end with a tough third-round…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":66767,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[463],"class_list":["post-66766","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us-open","tag-us-open"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66766","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66766"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66766\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}