MELBOURNE, Australia – – A tennis player learned Wednesday not to celebrate victory until the match has actually been won.
Before Sebastian Ofner lost in Australian Open qualifying, the 29-year-old Austrian had raised his arms and walked to the net after taking a 7-1 lead in the decisive tiebreak against Nishesh Basavareddy.
The chair umpire sent Ofner back to continue playing the super tiebreaker until he got at least 10 points, not seven, and was two points ahead.
A few minutes later, Basavareddy completed a 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (11) win – after Ofner had had two match point chances – and the 20-year-old American made an apparent choking gesture towards the net with both hands behind his neck.
“I saw him tense up a little bit,” Basavareddy said of Ofner’s reaction to the scoring mishap, adding, “When that happens, you generally start to think too much like, ‘Oh, I thought I had won the match already, all the way to the next round.’ So yeah, that definitely gave me a little bit of hope.”
Basavareddy will now face Great Britain’s George Loffhagen for a place in the first round of the main draw, where the American took the first set over Novak Djokovic a year ago.
The 131st-ranked Ofner has never won a main draw match at the Australian Open, although he reached the fourth round at Roland Garros in 2023.
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