Tag: BBC

Brisbane Boys’ College Old Collegian Dane Sweeny has produced the biggest Grand Slam run of his career, knocking out 13th seed Lorenzo Musetti to reach the third round of the US Open — nearly a decade after BBC was celebrating him as one of Australia’s brightest junior prospects.

For those who followed Sweeny through his school years in Toowong, there is a familiar thread running through his breakthrough in New York. Long before he was taking on some of the world’s best at Flushing Meadows, he was juggling school with national championships and Australian junior duties.

Now 25 and ranked world No.123, Sweeny recovered from dropping the opening set against Italy’s Musetti before taking control of their second-round match, winning 3–6, 6–1, 6–2, 6–2.

It was Sweeny’s first victory over a top-20 player and carried him into the third round of a Grand Slam for the first time.

The BBC Years

Sweeny is a Brisbane Boys’ College Old Collegian from the 2017 cohort, and his rise through Australian junior tennis was being closely followed by the Toowong school well before he finished Year 12.

In December 2016, BBC announced that the Year 10 boarder had been invited to train with the Australian Davis Cup team ahead of Australia’s tie against the United States at Kooyong. By the following year, he had been selected for Australia’s under-16 Davis Cup team, with the school noting that he was the only full-time school student in the Australian side.

His international experience continued at the Junior Davis Cup in Budapest, before 2017 ended with Sweeny winning the Australian U16 singles and doubles titles.

There was plenty happening in school colours, too. BBC’s account of that season records Sweeny as part of its First IV tennis team, which claimed the GPS premiership, State Championship and National Schoolboys title.

From Junior Standout to the Grand Slam Stage

The path from outstanding junior to established professional proved anything but straightforward.

Sweeny's first Grand Slam main-draw appearance didn't come until the 2024 Australian Open, when he fought through three rounds of qualifying to earn his place. Ranked No.257 at the time, he described seeing something he had imagined since childhood become reality as “quite surreal”.

His reward was a daunting first-round assignment against world No.22 Francisco Cerundolo. Sweeny pushed the Argentine to five sets before his debut came to an end.

His career then hit a difficult stretch, and Sweeny later revealed that he stepped away from the tour for about two months in 2024 before deciding to return. Two years later, that decision has taken him further at a Grand Slam than ever before.

An Upset Changes Everything in New York

Sweeny received a wildcard into the 2026 US Open main draw and made the opportunity count from his opening match.

Frenchman Corentin Moutet retired with Sweeny leading 7–6(4), 6–4, 3–0, setting up the considerably tougher assignment against Musetti.

The Italian, ranked world No.14 and seeded 13th, appeared to have the advantage after taking the opening set 6–3. What followed was emphatic: Sweeny conceded only five games across the next three sets as he turned the match around and completed the biggest win of his career by opponent ranking.

His reward is another Italian opponent, 21st seed Luciano Darderi, with a place in the fourth round — the last 16 of the US Open — at stake.

For BBC, there is something particularly satisfying about where the story has reached. The school's old social media posts capture Sweeny before the rankings, Grand Slam draws and packed international courts: a teenager in BBC colours, then an Australian junior representative, gradually working his way towards the game he wanted to play for a living.

Nearly a decade later, the backdrop is New York rather than Toowong and the opponents are among the best players in the world.

Those old photos from the BBC courts now look like the opening pages of a much bigger story — and Sweeny is still writing it.

Published 4-September-2026