Austria’s number one fails in Astana, but the next career highlight is already waiting.
Sebastian Ofner walked to the net, his eyes on the ground. The Styrian, 27, had just been beaten by the French veteran Adrian Mannarino 4:6, 2:6 and thus lost the chance of his first final at ATP level.
The Kazakh capital Astana would have been a grateful place for such a career milestone. A 250 tournament in Central Asia, well endowed, but certainly not the best in this category (no top 20 player at the start). An outpost of “Asian Swing” before the major tournaments in Japan and China.
Ofner felt comfortable there from the start because of the fast hard court surface, and his clear three-set win in the quarter-finals over Dominic Thiem caused a stir. With Marton
Fucsovics (ATP 57) and Alexander Bublik (ATP 35) he said goodbye to other well-known players, and in the semi-final against Mannarino (ATP 34) Ofner lacked the strength to rally again. Cleverly and patiently, the 35-year-old left-hander involved him in long rallies, frustrated him with “dead” balls on the backhand – and served confidently after just over an hour (the final opponent on Tuesday is Sebastian Korda).
New high
This means that Dominic Thiem remains the last Austrian to have played in an ATP final (Kitzbühel at the beginning of August); a year earlier, Filip Misolic had also made it to a final in Kitzbühel, both of whom left the field as losers. The last red-white-red ATP title to date was almost four years ago (Thiem 2019 in Vienna), but in the meantime Thiem won the US Open in 2020 (Grand Slam tournaments are not covered by the ATP tour, but rather the ITF).
Another highlight awaits Ofner with the 1000 tournament in Shanghai. For the first time ever he is in the main draw at a Masters, his opponent is the Peruvian Juan Pablo Varillas (ATP 67). In the world rankings, Ofner, currently number 58, is about to make his way into the top 50 for the first time. (red.)
2023-10-02 14:38:33
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