Sebastian Ofner was born on May 12, 1996, in Bruck an de Mur, Austria, to Hansjorg and Gabriela Ofner. He began playing tennis at the age of 6 at a camp. Ofner attended school until the age of 19, before deciding to pursue a professional tennis career.
The Austrian first made headlines at the 2017 Wimbledon Championships. As a qualifier, Ofner reached the third round at SW19 in his first-ever Grand Slam appearance. After beating Thomaz Bellucci in the opening round, he won a five-set thriller against Jack Sock. His run was ended by Alexander Zverev.
Ofner was unable to make an immediate push up the rankings after this. From 2018 to 2022, he won just six ATP Tour-level matches. One of these was a memorable triumph in front of his home fans at the 2022 Kitzbuhel Open against French tennis legend Richard Gasquet.
Aside from those fleeting moments, Ofner scrapped away on the ATP Challenger Tour until the end of 2022. He reached six finals during that period, winning three titles. Two of these were on hard courts in Astana and Puerto Vallarta, while the other was on clay in Prague.
Ofner made a big breakthrough in 2023. As a qualifier, he reached a maiden Grand Slam fourth round at the French Open. The Austrian comfortably overcame Maxime Cressy and the 24th seed Sebastian Korda in the opening two rounds. That was followed by prevailing in a five-set epic against Fabio Fognini, before being knocked out by Stefanos Tsitsipas.
That achievement at Roland-Garros came after Ofner made an outstanding start to the season on the Challenger Tour. He progressed to an impressive six finals by June, winning the final one of these on home soil in Salzburg. These results saw Ofner end the 2023 season ranked No. 43, having started the year as the world No. 193.
