Nishesh Basavareddy is through to the Australian Open second round, one week after his opponent in qualifying celebrated too early thinking he had won the match.
Sebastian Ofner pumped his fist and walked to the net when he moved 7-1 ahead in the third-set tiebreak, before realising that third-set tiebreaks in qualifying are to 10 points and that he needed three more to win.
Basavareddy, the 20-year-old American, used that moment to stage a monumental comeback, triumphing 4-6 6-4 7-6 (13-11) to advance to the third round of qualifying.
Basavareddy then fought from a set down to defeat Great Britain’s George Loffhagen in the final round of qualifying, before claiming his first ever win in the main draw of a grand slam by beating Australian player Chris O’Connell.
Basavareddy required another comeback to win in five sets, prevailing 4-6, 7-6 (7), 6-7 (3), 6-2, 6-3, to set up a second-round match with 15th seed Karen Khachanov, who also won in five sets.
When Basavareddy staged his fightback to defeat Ofner, he celebrated by turning to his opponent and doing a ‘choke’ taunt – a gesture made iconic by former Indiana Pacers star Reggie Miller towards New York Knocks fan Spike Lee during the 1994 NBA play-offs.
“I knew there was still some time… In a super [match] tiebreak, you always have a chance, so I kept believing,” Basavareddy told the Australian Open website after his win.
“After I won that next point [at 1-7] I was like – generally when that happens, you start overthinking like, ‘oh, I thought I already won the match, through to the next round’. So yeah, that definitely gave me a little bit of hope.
“I saw him tense up a little bit, but the balls were quite old there, so every rally was a war and that was my main focus, just to put as many balls in play.”
