2023-11-10 13:46:40
Tennis
A historic season for Sebastian Ofner came to an end on Thursday. After the narrow exit in the quarter-finals in Sofia against Frenchman Adrian Mannarino, the 27-year-old Styrian took stock. “The ranking is far better than expected. I would never have thought of that at the beginning of the year,” said Ofner, who is expected to end the year in 43rd place in the ATP rankings and is therefore Austria’s clear number one.
10.11.2023 14.46
Online since today, 2:46 p.m
Ofner started at number 193, followed by an increase of 150 places in the ranking; Ofner had originally targeted the top 100 at the end of the year. The highlight for the Styrian was certainly reaching the round of 16 at the French Open in Paris, where he lost to the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas in three sets. At the Challenger in Salzburg, Ofner celebrated a celebrated home win after previously losing six finals at this tournament level.
In Shanghai, Wolfgang Thiem’s protégé made his debut at a Masters 1000 tournament and made it to the second round. “It was an incredible season, a lot of things went really well.” In the end, with one or two wins “maybe things could have looked a little better”. But Ofner, who almost doubled his previous prize money this season with almost $800,000 in earnings, did not mourn.
APA/Eva Manhart After several seasons marked by injuries, Sebastian Ofner made his breakthrough this year
The goal is to stabilize in the top 50
For 2024, which will be his first full season on the ATP tour, the 27-year-old hopes to stabilize in the top 50. “I have been able to gain valuable experience on the ATP tour over the last three or four months for next year – what I have to prepare for, where I still have to improve.”
That’s why he now wants to prepare as well as possible for next year. “Next season I want to pick up where I left off and confirm it. Maintain my ranking, maybe even improve it, but roughly within that radius. It’s already difficult enough on the ATP tour.” He still wants to get one or two percent out of himself.
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