Australian Open star mocked for wrongly celebrating victory before brutal loss | Tennis | Sport

Austrian tennis ace Sebastian Ofner was left red-faced when he wrongly celebrated winning what he thought was a match point in his second-round Australian Open qualifying tie, before going on to lose moments later. And his conqueror, Nishesh Basavareddy, rubbed salt in the wounds as he appeared to mock Ofner for ‘choking’ the match away.

Final set tiebreaks at the Grand Slam tournaments are first to 10 points, but Ofner thought it was first to seven. The No. 19 seed in the qualifying draw, Ofner’s match against Basavareddy went to a deciding tiebreak, where he took a 6-1 lead. Basavareddy sent the ball long on the next point, and Ofner believed that won him the match.

The 29-year-old raised his arms in the air in celebration and started to walk towards the net, pumping his fist and pointing to his head. However, the umpire informed him that the match wasn’t over and he needed to at least 10 points to win.

Ofner retreated to the baseline with a 7-1 lead, but things quickly derailed, and he lost seven of the next eight points, reeling off errors to level the score at 8-8. At 11-11 in the decisive tiebreak, Ofner missed another forehand to give Basavareddy a match point, doubling over in disappointment.

The American took it, getting the job done with a winner at the net to seal a 4-6 6-4 7-6(11) comeback victory. To add insult to injury for Ofner, Basavareddy went in big with his own celebrations.

He appeared to gesture that he was choking – a subtle nod to his opponent ‘choking’ the match, before roaring and pumping his fists. Basavareddy will now face British star George Loffhagen in the final round of qualifying, with a place in the main draw at stake.

Djokovic applauded Basavareddy off the court and said: “I think he was the better player for a set and a half. He deserves every bit of applause he got when he was exiting the court. It was a great performance. To be really honest with you, I’d never seen him play until three, four days ago, so I didn’t know much about him.”