{"id":370667,"date":"2026-01-15T04:25:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T04:25:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/370667\/"},"modified":"2026-01-15T04:25:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T04:25:08","slug":"sydneys-sweeny-scraps-his-way-to-australian-open-start","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/370667\/","title":{"rendered":"Sydney’s Sweeny scraps his way to Australian Open start"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dane Sweeny has fought his way through qualifying to earn a main-draw berth at the Australian Open. (Zain Mohammed\/AAP PHOTOS)<\/p>\n

Self-described scrapper Dane Sweeny has battled his way into the Australian Open main draw with a gritty straight-sets win over Italy’s Stefano Travaglia.<\/p>\n

Sydney’s Sweeny secured the spot on Thursday, winning his third straight match in qualifying at Melbourne Park.<\/p>\n

Cheered on by a court packed with vocal home fans, the 24-year-old won 7-6 (7-5) 7-6 (7-3) to qualify for the Open for just the second time, following his 2024 campaign.<\/p>\n

Sweeny made a first-round exit at what was his only previous appearance at a major, and is currently ranked No.182 in the world.<\/p>\n

After Thursday’s win, an emotional Sweeny sat court-side with his head in his hands, soaking up his achievement.<\/p>\n

“I’m in disbelief,” he said in his on-court interview.<\/p>\n

“Really, I was ranked 700 not so long ago, and I persevered, I was doubting the whole time.<\/p>\n

“I just feel so incredibly grateful to be able to be in this position, and I’m proud of myself for digging in there when it was really tough.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I had a few opportunities to really break the (first) set wide open and I was a bit passive in the big moments.<\/p>\n

“In the second set that was my goal, just to play with conviction in the big moments, win or lose, and I think I did that.<\/p>\n

“So I can’t really believe it yet, but I’m super excited.”<\/p>\n

\"Dane
\n Dane Sweeny has walked through an Open door after qualifying for the year’s first grand slam event. (Zain Mohammed\/AAP PHOTOS)<\/p>\n

The diminutive Sydneysider, who only weighs 63kg and stands 170cm, \u00a0threw himself into every point in a stunning acrobatic display that often ended with him splayed across the court.<\/p>\n

It appeared he had injured his wrist in the second set while diving for a shot, but he shook it off and played on.<\/p>\n

“I don’t even have a decision when I do that, it’s just intuitive, it just happens,” Sweeny said.<\/p>\n

“I think it just comes from being small and learning to scrap (from) a young age.”<\/p>\n

Sweeny is one of four Australians – the others being Jason Kubler, Madison Inglis and Storm Hunter – still alive in qualifying, with the winners advancing to the main draw, which gets under way on Sunday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dane Sweeny has fought his way through qualifying to earn a main-draw berth at the Australian Open. (Zain…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":370668,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[390,15580,19357,19355,50,19356,4500,17085,101,118,4902,56,54,55,231],"class_list":["post-370667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-breaking-news","tag-daily-news","tag-global-news","tag-inkl","tag-news","tag-news-app","tag-news-headlines","tag-news-today","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-today-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370667","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=370667"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370667\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/370668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=370667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=370667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=370667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}