'sad opportunity' is correct and usable in written English.
You could use it to describe a missed chance to do something, or an unwanted obligation. For example, "It was a sad opportunity to miss the show, but I had to stay home and take care of my sick grandmother."
And another generation of foreign correspondents will have the sad opportunity to report from and fall in love with the place.
"If you have lived abroad, you measure yourself against the best in the world".During their father's terminal cancer the brothers had a sad opportunity to see the American health-care system up close.
Living in California, I have had the sad opportunity of watching as a minority of Republicans in this deep blue state have been able to put a stranglehold on the state's finances by a rigid adherence to the Grover Norquist anti-tax pledge, thanks to a required supermajority for tax measures.
I feel sad that this opportunity is no longer available to me and other elite female players.
The ending with Lancôme was sad, but the opportunity to right it is irresistible.
I am overjoyed to finally have an answer and a treatment, but also sad about the opportunities not taken and times with friends and family that I have missed.
Now, I see the way they're conducting themselves and I just feel sad about the opportunities they've wasted by letting pettiness and pride overshadow their desire to effect actual change.
The ending suggests a nuanced take on the title, but it's so flatly rendered that I was just sad about the missed opportunity.
Attorney General Eliot L. Spitzer described the Helpline case as a "sad story of an opportunity wasted" and said monitoring of the program had been lax.
If instead, the core tool is not analysis but rather appreciation —deep appreciation of the consumer's life — what makes it hard or easy; what makes her (in this category) happy or sad — there is the opportunity to imagine possibilities that do not exist.
CHICAGO — After failing to capitalize on their fast start in Sunday's rain-soaked game at Soldier Field, the Washington Redskins seemed to be spinning another sad tale of squandered opportunity — one that would extend their winless streak on the road and deal a major blow to their playoff hopes.
