Sebastian Ofner narrowly missed the third ATP Tour semi-final of his career. The Styrian lost to Adrian Mannarino from France 7:6(7), 4:6, 3:6 in the quarterfinals of the ATP 250 hard court tournament in Sofia on Thursday. The 27-year-old missed a 1-0 set lead against the tournament’s number two, including a break lead in the second set. For the world number 44. It was the 91st and final game of the season, which gave him his best year as a professional tennis player.
Set one was not for the faint of heart. Ofner broke the Frenchman in the fourth game and then defended his service by fending off four break points. But the 4-1 lead didn’t last long: Mannarino – number 25 in the ranking – hit back and equalized to 4-4. The decision was only made in the tiebreak, where the Austrian was initially 1:3 behind, then scored five points in a row and finally missed all three opportunities to win the set in one go. Only the fifth set ball brought the 1-0 lead after a good 70 minutes.
In the second round, the 27-year-old Ofner took the service from his eight-year-old opponent in the third game, but then wobbled on his own serve. Mannarino finally made it 4:4 with a break. Ofner, who was ranked number seven in Sofia, then missed the opportunity for the rebreak and lost his service to zero at 4:5, which was equivalent to equalizing the set.
Ofner left breakballs lying around
In the deciding set, Ofner failed to play his first two service games. A rebreak on the positive side was ultimately not enough, also because the Styrian missed two break points at 3:5. Mannarino, however, used his first match point after 2:38 hours and made it 2-0 in the direct duel. So Austria’s number one didn’t have another semi-final on the ATP tour to Kitzbühel 2017 and Astana a little over a month ago.
Ofner can still draw a positive conclusion to the season. The right-hander started the year at number 193 in the world rankings and worked his way up to number 44 – his career high – in eleven months. He could improve one position through the Sofia quarter-finals. This means that the ÖTV player can look calmly towards the new season, as he is certain of taking part in the major tournaments on the tour.
This year, frequent player Ofner played 38 games on the ATP tour (including qualifications: 22 wins to 16 defeats), 52 at Challenger level (38:14) and one game in the Davis Cup (0:1). His greatest successes were reaching the round of 16 at the French Open and the semi-finals in Astana, where he defeated, among others, compatriot Dominic Thiem. At Challenger level, Ofner celebrated a home win in Salzburg and reached the finals of five other tournaments (Tenerife, Antalya, Zadar, Prague and Ilkley).
2023-11-09 19:08:00
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