A tennis star competing in the Australian Open forgot the rules and started celebrating early thinking he had won – only to end up losing the match
A tennis star was left red-faced after forgetting the rules and celebrating prematurely – before going on to lose his match and get dumped out of Australian Open qualifying.
Sebastian Ofner is unlikely to want to watch back his clash with American youngster Nishesh Basavareddy anytime soon after making a fool of himself Down Under. The 29-year-old made a sorry exit after thinking he had secured victory at 7-1 in a third-set tie-break.
The Austrian No. 2 raised his arms to celebrate, pointing at his head and pumping his fist as he walked towards it to shake hands with his 20-year-old opponent Basavareddy. The world No. 140 seemingly hadn’t cottoned on to the fact that final-set tie-breaks are played to 10 points, meaning he still needed to clinch another three points to settle the tie.
He only realised the error of his ways when the umpire brought it to his attention, meaning he had to return to the baseline and try to win again.
Play resumed, as Basavareddy surged back and bagged eight of the next nine points on the way to winning 4-6 6-4 7-6 (13-11) and advancing to the final round of qualifying at Melbourne Park.
The world No. 172 – presumably a little fired up by his opponent’s antics – held his hands to his neck in a ‘choking’ gesture mocking his opponent, before letting out a roar of celebration. The gesture may have gone unnoticed by the Austrian, as he shook hands cordially with Basavareddy at the net.
Basavareddy later told the Australian Open website: “I knew there was still some time… In a super [match] tie-break, you always have a chance, so I kept believing.
“After I won that next point [at 1-7] I was like, generally when that happens, you start overthinking like, ‘oh, I thought I already won the match, through to the next round’.
“So yeah, that definitely gave me a little bit of hope. I saw him tense up a little bit, but the balls were quite old there, so every rally was a war and that was my main focus, just to put as many balls in play.”
Basavareddy is coached by Gilles Cervara, who worked previously with Daniil Medvedev when he reached world No. 1 and won the US Open.
He faces Brit star George Loffhagen, ranked No. 211, for a place in the Australian Open main draw, where he took a set off Novak Djokovic in a losing effort a year ago.
Reflecting on that contest against Djokovic, Basavareddy said: “I’ve always said his serve, I think that that surprised me the most.
“He had a lot of aces in that match and I didn’t get many returns back in play. In big moments he was able to come up with a big serve, so I think that was the thing that surprised me the most.
“But of course, how he just improved his level over the course of the best-of-five match is also impressive.”
Djokovic is bidding for a record 25th Grand Slam title at the Australian Open, with the main draw starting on Sunday, January 18.