A Mexican Open match ended in extraordinary circumstances on Thursday night, as Térence Atmane was given a point penalty down match point for not playing to the server’s pace.
Atmane, a Frenchman ranked No. 63, was trailing 6-3, 5-3 with his opponent Miomir Kecmanović serving, up advantage, a point away from winning their quarterfinal match.
Kecmanović, the world No. 84 from Serbia, was about to serve when the umpire Scotty Moore gave Atmane a time violation for not being ready to receive as he took a towel from a ballkid and wiped sweat off his hand. Because he had already been given a time violation earlier in the match — on that occasion on his own serve — Atmane lost the point and with it the match.
Atmane had been feeling unwell throughout, and was regularly towelling himself off between points. He told Moore at 1-1 in the second set that he had been vomiting all night going into the match. “I’m sweating like crazy. Like relax, give me five seconds okay?” he said after being asked to pick up the pace. Atmane then called for treatment at the change of ends and told an onsite doctor he had been shaking and feeling hot and cold throughout the match.
According to ATP rules, players are given 25 seconds between points, with the chair umpire starting a stopwatch when the ball goes out of play. Typically it’s the server who is given a time violation for taking too long between points — as was the case earlier in the match for Atmane — but the rules also state that a player can be given a time violation for “Not playing to the reasonable pace of the server.”
On this occasion, Moore told Atmane that Kecmanović was ready to serve, to which the Frenchman responded “Yeah, I’m not.” It was at this point that Moore issued the time violation and called game, set and match.
Kecmanović has moved on to the semi-finals (Manuel Velasquez/Getty Images)
Other incidents have seen the tension between enforcing the rules to the letter and adjusting according to the temperature of a match rub against each other. At the Shanghai Masters in 2024, Frances Tiafoe erupted at umpire Jimmy Pinoargote after being given a time violation at a key moment, for which he was later fined $120,000.
A rule change two years ago that meant the shot clock starts as soon as the point ends rather than being at the umpire’s discretion — partly to fend off any suggestion of subjectivity and favoritism, but also to quicken up matches and battle the general trend of players wanting to take longer between points. World No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz has expressed his frustration on a number of occasions at this new rule, including at the Qatar Open last week — arguing during his match against Karen Khachanov that he didn’t even have time to towel off.
On this occasion, Atmane stood motionless for more than 20 seconds when the match was called. He shook hands with Kecmanović, who looked uncomfortable at how things had played out, but appeared to ignore the umpire. Largely unknown until last summer, Atmane rose to prominence with a run to the semifinals of the Cincinnati Open, a Masters 1000 event, one rung below the Grand Slams. The Mexican Open is a 500 tournament, the next level down.
Kecmanović, who took out world No. 4 Alexander Zverev in the previous round, faces Italy’s world No. 20 Flavio Cobolli in the semi-finals on Friday. The victor will take on the winner of the all-American affair between Frances Tiafoe and Brandon Nakashima.
The tournament and the ATP have been contacted for comment.