Epic fail at Australian Open: He celebrated without realising the match had not finished... and then lost

Austrian player Sebastian Ofner prematurely celebrated a match... forgetting it was a 10-point tie break.
Text: Javier Escribano
Published 2026-01-14

Austrian tennis player Sebastian Ofner, currently ranked 140 in the world, and the second best Austrian player, suffered a very embarrassing moment in the Australian Open qualifier, where he lost to Nishesh Basavareddy... after a premature (and provocative) celebration.

Ofner took the first set 6-4, Basavareddy won the second also 6-4, and the deciding set went to tie-break. Grand Slam qualifying matches are best of three sets, but tie breaks remain being 10-point, instead of 7-points. And Ofner did not know: when he reached 7-1 in the tie-break, he theatrically celebrated, throwing the racket and touching his neck, as if he was taking his pulse.

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However, he did not know he had to continue playing... and Basavareddy came from six points behind, finally winning the tie-break 13-11. We will never know if Basavareddy's epic comeback was due to his rival's distress after the epic fail, but it has certainly given us one of the weirdest moments of the Australian Open.

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