After beating world No. 9 Holger Rune to make the Cincinnati Open semifinals, world No. 136 Térence Atmane grabbed a marker pen to perform one of the new rituals in tennis: Writing on a camera lens after a win.

What should the 23-year-old Frenchman scribble? A message to the fans? A note on Mason, Ohio, the venue of the tournament? A tribute to a coach or family member who had helped him on his journey.

“Fermi’s paradox?!” Atmane wrote, fully buying into the extraterrestrial tennis that has propelled him into a first ATP 1,000 semifinal the past week. The paradox, named for physicist Enrico Fermi, addresses the contradiction between the high likelihood of aliens existing and the lack of evidence for that existence. If the universe is so vast, why has no other intelligent life been observed?

In the wake of his 6-2, 6-3 win over Rune, Atmane’s concerns were more earthly. “It’s a lot of money for me,” he said on court.

Atmane has earned $332,160 for his exploits in Ohio; his career prize money prior to the tournament was just under $1 million total. He has beaten Rune; Taylor Fritz, last year’s U.S. Open finalist; João Fonseca, one of the hottest properties in the sport and Flavio Cobolli, who took a set off Novak Djokovic at Wimbledon. He came through qualifying to do it, beating Japan’s Yoshihito Nishioka in the first round. and his hyper-aggressive, at-times flashy left-handed game has thrived in the relatively quick conditions.

In a year in which breakouts like Victoria Mboko’s Canadian Open title and Loïs Boisson’s run to the French Open semifinals have spoken to the importance of underlying numbers, even in the tennis minor leagues, Atmane’s run is an old-fashioned heater. He has the kind of game that can dismantle opponents when it’s on. It’s just never been on before for this long, at this level.

His ATP Tour career record prior to this event was 5-14; his ATP Challenger record, one rung down, a modest 74-48. He is only 19-10 at Challenger level in 2025, despite winning two titles in the spring.

At this year’s French Open, his home Grand Slam, the Court Philippe-Chatrier crowd booed him following a limp defeat to Richard Gasquet, a statesman of the French game. At the 2024 edition, he somehow avoided being defaulted after lashing a ball into the stands in frustration and striking a spectator; a few months later, his former sponsor, Asics, dropped him. Atmane had carried Nike shoes onto court the day before he announced their split.

“I was just trying to be more healthy, more happy,” he said in an interview with the Tennis Channel of his tennis in the period since that defeat to Gasquet earlier this year.

“I still need to work a lot, this needs to not be an exception, more like a daily basis,” he said.

Atmane knows that his style, and current place in the tennis ecosystem is one of risk and reward. A forehand blast that nicks the outside of the line one week might go feet long the next. He will rise inside at least the top 70 with his results at a Masters 1,000 tournament, but will have to play three matches next week just to qualify for the U.S. Open, because the entry rankings were locked before his rise.

He even embodies a contradiction at the heart of the sport’s infrastructure. The Cincinnati Open this year became a 12-day event, extended from one week. This format has been criticized for its slow pace, and for how it makes the schedule more onerous for top players. But it also expands the size of the draws at 1,000 events, from 56 players to 96. Under the one-week format, Atmane would not have made the cut for qualifying.

“Nothing to lose” has been his mantra all tournament, but when it is over, he will have something to lose — everything he has gained. For now, world No. 1 Jannik Sinner awaits in the semifinals, a sporting extraterrestrial of a different kind.

(Photo: Matthew Stockman / Getty Images)