BUENOS AIRES/ARGENTINA. Sebastian Ofner lost his opening match at the ATP 250 tournament in Buenos Aires after a tough fight against Argentinian Federico Coria. After the early defeat in Cordoba the previous week, the narrow defeat hurts even more.
Sebastian Ofner here in Kitzbühel in 2023, photo: gerd2709
At the tournament in Cordoba last week, Ofner lost his first game to the Italian qualifier Luciano Darderi surprisingly 0:6, 3:6. The defeat, which at first seemed incomprehensible in its clarity, was put into perspective after the Italian won the tournament as number 136 in the world rankings.
This week Ofner had to compete against local hero Federico Coria. The current number 106 in the world rankings achieved its best ranking so far exactly a year ago at number 49. Some may still remember older brother Guillermo Coria, who lost the French Open final in 2004 after leading in two sets.
Ofner lost the first set unfortunately, as he had five balls to reach the tie break. However, the Argentine broke and won 7:5. In the second set, the Styrian managed one more break than his opponent and after fending off three break points, he finally served out to make it 6:4 and tie the set.
The third sentence became a crime thriller. Austria’s number one in tennis broke to 4:3, lost his serve in order to take the service from the Argentine again. But instead of serving out, Ofner lost his serve game to zero. Coria won the last two games and won 7:5, 4:6 and 7:5.