Australian Open star mocked by rival after celebrating too early before losing | Tennis | Sport

A tennis player was left embarrassed after prematurely celebrating a win, only to lose his match and be eliminated from the Australian Open qualifiers. Sebastian Ofner is likely to cringe at the memory of his match against American hopeful Nishesh Basavareddy, where he made a spectacle of himself.

Ofner made an unfortunate exit after mistakenly believing he had won the match at 7-1 in a third-set tie-break. He raised his arms in triumph, gesturing towards his head and pumping his fist as he approached Basavareddy, his 20-year-old opponent, for a handshake. However, the world No. 140 seemed unaware that final-set tie-breaks are played to 10 points, meaning he still needed to secure another three points to win the match.

His mistake was pointed out by the umpire, forcing him to return to the baseline and attempt to clinch the victory once more.

Play then resumed, with Basavareddy making a comeback and securing eight of the next nine points, leading to a 4-6 6-4 7-6 (13-11) victory and progression to the final round of qualifying at Melbourne Park.

The world No. 172, presumably motivated by his opponent’s premature celebration, made a ‘choking’ gesture towards his neck, mocking Ofner, before letting out a triumphant roar.

This gesture may have been missed by the Austrian, who shook hands amicably with Basavareddy at the net.

In an interview with the Australian Open website, Basavareddy revealed: “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 under the tutelage of Gilles Cervara, who previously guided Daniil Medvedev to world No. 1 and US Open victory.

He’s set to face British talent George Loffhagen, ranked No. 211, for a spot in the Australian Open main draw, where he managed to snatch a set from Novak Djokovic last year despite losing the match.

Reflecting on his previous encounter with Djokovic, Basavareddy commented: “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.”