Months after questioning his tennis future, Dane Sweeny has achieved a childhood dream by winning at a grand slam.
The plucky 24-year-old, who went to school at Siena Catholic College on the Sunshine Coast, pulled off a memorable Australian Open win on January 20, ending the Melbourne Park career of popular French veteran Gael Monfils.
The victory ensured the world No.182 will pocket a guaranteed $225,000 for progressing to the second round of a major for the first time.
It is a remarkable rise for Sweeny, whose ranking was in the 500s as recently as last July.
“I could imagine it but it was more like a dream,” he said when asked about his plight last year.
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“I knew deep down I could do this if I kept putting my head down.
“I was really questioning my game, questioning my journey and questioning whether tennis is something I should be doing.
“But there was that voice deep down that knew I could do it if I kept going.
“But this is just the beginning.”
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Sweeny, who stands at 170cm and weighs just 63kgs to be one of the smaller players on tour, qualified for the Australian Open in 2024, before a hard-fought five-set loss to Argentine seed Francisco Cerundolo in the first round.
He has done it the hard way since first picking up a racquet aged two.
Father Clay sold his cleaning business to coach his son around the world.
“They’ve never been poor, but not ever been super well-off, so they’ve had to financially sacrifice a lot and emotionally sacrifice a lot,” Sweeny said of his parents.
“I’ve been pretty independent from when I started making enough money … but they’ve been relentlessly sacrificial my whole life.”
Sweeny, born in Sydney, has lived on the Sunshine Coast for a large slice of his life. He honed his skills out of the KT Academy, Mooloolaba Tennis Club.
Sweeny will face American world No.8 Ben Shelton in a second round match on John Cain Arena at Melbourne Park on January 22. It will follow the match involving Ashlyn Krueger and Madison Keys, which is due to start at 10am AEST.
“I’m very excited at the opportunity to play a big dog like him,” Sweeny said.
“I was really hoping first round I would play (Jannik) Sinner or (Carlos) Alcaraz, so playing Shelton it’s a good consolation prize playing him second round.
“He has arguably the best serve in the world so that will be a big puzzle to solve.”
Even if he can’t pull off a monumental upset by taking out Shelton, Sweeny’s ranking is guaranteed to surpass his career-high ranking of 181.
In the live rankings after he defeated Monfils, Sweeny had already jumped to 148.
