{"id":410066,"date":"2026-01-15T03:32:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T03:32:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/410066\/"},"modified":"2026-01-15T03:32:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T03:32:15","slug":"ofner-loses-australian-open-qualifying-match-after-premature-celebration-tennis-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/410066\/","title":{"rendered":"Ofner Loses Australian Open Qualifying Match After Premature Celebration \u2013 Tennis Now"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Ever since the 10-point match tiebreak was introduced at all four Grand Slams, we\u2019ve seen it. Players celebrating when they get to seven, thinking they\u2019ve won the match. It\u2019s only natural, given how many have spent a lifetime playing nothing other than first-to-seven tiebreaks for their career.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" data-lazyloaded=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"610\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Pro-Player-Gear-610X150-03.jpg\" alt=\"tennis express pro player gear\" class=\"wp-image-54451\"  data-\/>tennis express pro player gear<\/p>\n<p>And it was only natural on Day 3 of Australian Open qualifying, as Austrian Sebastian Ofner got caught celebrating at 7-1 in the match tiebreak with American Nishesh Basavareddy. What happened next was what really makes this story spectacular. Ofner blew the lead and lost the match 4-6 6-4 7-6 13-11.<\/p>\n<p>And Basavareddy gave him the choke sign before he sent him away. Can\u2019t make this stuff up.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI kept believing,\u201d Basavareddy said, <a href=\"https:\/\/ausopen.com\/articles\/news\/basavareddy-benefits-ofners-scoreboard-stumble\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">According to ausopen.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAfter I won that next point [at 1-7] I was like \u2013 generally when that happens, you start overthinking like, \u2018Oh, I thought I already won the match, through to the next round\u2019. That definitely gave me a little bit of hope.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Given how cold Basavareddy\u2019s celebration was, the handshake was quite friendly. Perhaps Ofner didn\u2019t see the gesture. See the (rough) footage below of match point, and of Ofner\u2019s premature celebration.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">In the weirdest thing in sports today?<\/p>\n<p>Life comes at your fast. Ofner forgot it\u2019s a 10 point tiebreak for majors even in qualifying. Celebrates the win. <\/p>\n<p>Basavareddy comes all the way back and wins. Throws up the choke sign in his celebration. From 1-7 to a win. <\/p>\n<p>Wtf <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/cwPhdm0WVb\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/cwPhdm0WVb<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Tim Preston (@TimmyTebrows) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TimmyTebrows\/status\/2011253040523931774?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">January 14, 2026<\/a> <\/p>\n<p>Basavareddy, 21, will face George Loffhagen of Great Britain in the final round of qualifying.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ever since the 10-point match tiebreak was introduced at all four Grand Slams, we\u2019ve seen it. Players celebrating&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":399467,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,82,593],"class_list":["post-410066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410066","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=410066"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410066\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/399467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=410066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=410066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=410066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}