CIUTADELLA DE MENORCA, April 2, 2026
Sebastian Ofner brought an early end to his campaign at the Open Menorca on Wednesday, retiring from his first-round match against Italian Raul Brancaccio after losing the opening set. However, the Austrian quickly reassured that there is no serious injury concern.
“Actually, I’m feeling quite good,” Ofner told Tennis TourTalk on Thursday. “I just caught a bit of a cold and had been feeling under the weather over the last few days. Then I started to feel my shoulder a little and decided not to push through it and risk making it worse in the end. It was purely a precautionary measure.”
The 28-year-old was one of many players affected by the extreme weather conditions in Menorca. Strong, swirling winds had already caused major disruptions to the schedule of the ATP Challenger 100 tournament during the opening days.
“I’ve never experienced anything quite as extreme as that before,” Ofner said when asked whether he had ever played in such conditions. “I also think it was too extreme. I don’t think there is a certain rule for that, but really it had very little to do with tennis, because at times it was simply about who could get the ball back into the court once.”
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Despite the disappointing end to his week in the Balearic island, Ofner has every reason to look back positively on the opening months of the season. After being sidelined for a period last year, he has worked his way back up to No. 78 in the world rankings.
“In the previous year I was out again for a certain period, so it took a little while,” he said. “But I see the start to the new season very positively. Four of the last five weeks were really good. I managed to win two Challenger tournaments in a row in France. They were very strong events, so it was a good performance.”
Ofner captured back-to-back Challenger titles in St. Brieuc and Thionville earlier this year and has rebuilt both his confidence and his ranking. The Austrian also insisted that the missed match points in the qualifying of the Australian Open no longer bother him.
“Not at all,” he said. “Something like that happens once and then it is over.”
Now the focus is firmly back on the ATP Tour. Ofner plans to play qualifying in Barcelona and the Madrid, before hoping to enter the main draw at the Masters in Rome. After that, he intends to compete in Geneva Open and finally at Roland-Garros in Paris.
“With the ranking that I have again now, the path leads back to the ATP Tour for the time being,” Ofner said. “In the end, that pays off more.”
