Alex de Minaur's US Open Frustration: Early Exit and Ranking Threat

Alex de Minaur’s season of frustration has hit its lowest point yet, with the Australian No.1 crashing out of the US Open in the second round and now staring at the prospect of losing his top-10 ranking within weeks.

The world No.7 was out-hit and out of rhythm in a 6-4, 7-5, 6-2 defeat to Botic van de Zandschulp in New York on Friday (AEST), a straight-sets exit that underlined a prolonged slide after his blistering start to 2026.

“My level today wasn’t good enough. It’s pretty straightforward,” de Minaur said, not hiding from the reality. He spoke of trying to compete, of maintaining a strong mindset and attitude, but the feel deserted him. The ball never quite sat on the strings. Errors flowed from a racket usually built on reliability and relentlessness.

“The more I tried, the more intensity, the more fired up I was getting, I just kept on making unforced errors … [it was] a tough day at the office.”

A season turning sour

This is not a loss in isolation. De Minaur has exited this early at a major only twice in his past 13 grand slams, yet this year has been his least productive at that level in three seasons.

He opened the year with a second Australian Open quarter-final, a result that seemed to confirm his rise into the sport’s elite. Since then, the trajectory has bent the wrong way: third round at Roland-Garros, fourth round at Wimbledon, and now his earliest US Open departure in five years, after back-to-back quarter-finals in New York.

The numbers paint the same picture. De Minaur has gone beyond the quarter-finals at any event only once since February. The emotional toll has been obvious. After losing to Flavio Cobolli at Wimbledon, he admitted that failing to deliver on that stage “breaks me inside”. He tried to temper that reaction after another defeat in Washington, but the on-court struggles have not eased.

Against van de Zandschulp, the most scrutinised part of his game let him down badly. Seven double faults, just four aces, 11 break points faced, five service breaks conceded. For a player who has worked tirelessly to turn his serve from a liability into a weapon, it was a brutal regression.

The turning points were there, and he still could not grab them. A double fault left him a set and 4-3 down. Then came a slice of luck: scrambling in defence, de Minaur saw a backhand clip the net cord and skid past van de Zandschulp for a winner, giving him 15-40. He clawed back the break, nudged in front, and for a few minutes the match felt like it might flip.

Instead, he was dragged into a draining service game at 5-5. He saved four break points, fought, scrapped, but finally yielded on the fifth. Van de Zandschulp apologised after a mishit dropped short and drew de Minaur forward for the passing shot that sealed the game. The Australian still had a play on it. He didn’t take it.

Two sets down, history weighed heavily. De Minaur had never recovered from that position in 27 attempts. A bathroom break and a reset could not change the pattern. He overhit a forehand to drop serve in the third game, squandered two break-back chances in the next, then was broken again as van de Zandschulp closed in on one of the biggest wins of his career.

On paper, this was an upset. In reality, it reflected current form. The Dutchman, who also knocked out Carlos Alcaraz in the second round here two years ago, arrived in New York swinging freely and winning. He had never beaten de Minaur in four previous meetings. He never looked intimidated by the ranking this time.

De Minaur, by contrast, walked off facing a very different kind of battle – one with the rankings table and his own confidence.

Sweeny’s breakthrough on a wild Australian day

On a chaotic day for Australian tennis at Flushing Meadows, it was a wildcard ranked outside the top 100 who carried the flag into the third round.

Dane Sweeny, 170 centimetres of grit and persistence, produced the win of his life, dismantling Lorenzo Musetti 3-6, 6-1, 6-2, 6-2 for his first victory over a top-20 opponent and his first appearance in the last 32 of a major.

For Musetti, a two-time grand slam semi-finalist, the match quickly turned into a physical ordeal. From early in the third set, the Italian looked unwell, repeatedly hunched over in the corner of the court and moving gingerly between points. He took an off-court medical timeout after falling behind 3-0 in that set and flickered briefly with the occasional flash of his trademark flair, but never sustained any pressure.

Sweeny refused to offer him a way back. He kept the ball deep, kept the rallies honest, and kept his own level high. When Musetti did break, Sweeny broke straight back. When the Italian gifted an early break in the fourth, Sweeny locked in and did not open the door again.

This is not a player accustomed to the spotlight. His only previous match against this tier of opponent ended in a straight-sets loss to Ben Shelton in the second round of this year’s Australian Open. He has spent years grafting away on the lower rungs of the tour, with little to show for the effort.

He is finally being paid back. The Musetti win guarantees him more than $400,000 in prizemoney and pushes him to a provisional career-high live ranking of No.109. Next comes another seeded Italian, Luciano Darderi, and another chance to stretch this run deeper into the second week.

Sweeny spoke with the perspective of someone who has already ridden the sport’s darker corners.

“I’m so grateful to be able to even compete in grand slams,” he said. “The tennis journey is such a rollercoaster, and I’m so incredibly grateful to play in front of an awesome crowd and to soak up this moment. To win, and to get a couple of wins, is awesome.”

The milestone arrives less than two years after he walked away from the game for several months, worn down by a form slump just when he felt on the verge of a breakthrough.

“That’s the beautiful thing about pursuing something so hard like tennis,” he said. “Tennis can change on the flip of a coin. You’ve just got to keep persevering, and that’s what I did. I wasn’t getting results for a long while, but there’s a law of probability. I knew it was somehow going to swing in my favour if I just kept going, and I did.

“Now I’m here, and it’s the best decision I ever made to come back after that two months.”

His presence in the main draw owes something to fortune as well. Sweeny was originally slated to play qualifying, but a series of withdrawals nudged Alexei Popyrin directly into the main draw and transferred Tennis Australia’s reciprocal wildcard to him. He turned that ticket into his first grand slam win outside Melbourne Park when Corentin Moutet retired hurt while trailing 7-6 (7-4), 6-4, 3-0. Now he has backed it up with a genuine upset.

From a wildcard reshuffle to the brink of the top 100. The margins in this sport really can flip on a coin.

Kyrgios accepts ban as Aussies fall away

While de Minaur and Sweeny dominated the on-court narrative, Nick Kyrgios again occupied space in the background of Australian tennis.

The International Tennis Integrity Agency confirmed on Friday morning that Kyrgios had accepted a one-month suspension for out-of-competition use of cocaine, reduced from three months after he agreed to enter a treatment program. The ban, which stemmed from a social night out before he played in Mallorca, cost him his prizemoney and ranking points from that event.

Kyrgios had already apologised publicly to his family, friends and fans, calling it a “huge mistake” when news of his provisional suspension broke. His ban officially ended on Thursday, contingent on completing the treatment program. Stefanos Tsitsipas, his former doubles partner and occasional rival, said after his first-round win in New York that the situation did not surprise him and that he had been aware of it.

On court, the Australian contingent thinned quickly.

Qualifier Tristan Schoolkate threatened to follow Sweeny’s lead when he grabbed the opening set against Roland-Garros finalist Cobolli, but the fifth seed adjusted and rolled through 3-6, 6-3, 6-4, 7-5.

Popyrin’s campaign ended with a whimper after a strong start against Alejandro Tabilo. The 25th-seeded Chilean left-hander recovered from a one-set deficit to win 2-6, 7-6 (7-4), 7-6 (7-3), 6-2, leaving Popyrin visibly dispirited as the match slipped away.

By the close of play, Sweeny stood alone as the last Australian singles player left in the draw.

Elsewhere, the turbulence extended beyond the green and gold. Third seed Felix Auger-Aliassime bowed out in four sets to Karen Khachanov on another upset-laden day, while Coco Gauff, Iga Swiatek, Taylor Fritz and Naomi Osaka all moved through without major drama.

For Australia, though, the story is suddenly split in two directions: a top-10 star wrestling with his game and his place in the pecking order, and an unheralded battler riding the week of his life.

De Minaur will leave New York with questions about where his season goes from here. Sweeny, for once, leaves with nothing but possibilities.