{"id":84701,"date":"2025-08-15T12:14:06","date_gmt":"2025-08-15T12:14:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/84701\/"},"modified":"2025-08-15T12:14:06","modified_gmt":"2025-08-15T12:14:06","slug":"terence-atmane-plays-tennis-from-another-planet-on-run-to-cincinnati-open-semifinals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/84701\/","title":{"rendered":"Terence Atmane plays tennis from another planet on run to Cincinnati Open semifinals"},"content":{"rendered":"

After beating world No. 9 Holger Rune to make the Cincinnati Open<\/a> semifinals, world No. 136 T\u00e9rence Atmane grabbed a marker pen to perform one of the new rituals in tennis: Writing on a camera lens after a win.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cFermi\u2019s paradox?!\u201d 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?<\/p>\n

In the wake of his 6-2, 6-3 win over Rune, Atmane\u2019s concerns were more earthly. \u201cIt\u2019s a lot of money for me,\u201d he said on court.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s U.S. Open finalist; Jo\u00e3o 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\u2019s Yoshihito Nishioka in the first round. and his hyper-aggressive, at-times flashy left-handed game has thrived in the relatively quick conditions.<\/p>\n

In a year in which breakouts like Victoria Mboko\u2019s Canadian Open title<\/a> and Lo\u00efs Boisson\u2019s run to the French Open semifinals<\/a> have spoken to the importance of underlying numbers, even in the tennis minor leagues, Atmane\u2019s run is an old-fashioned heater. He has the kind of game that can dismantle opponents when it\u2019s on. It\u2019s just never been on before for this long, at this level.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

At this year\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was just trying to be more healthy, more happy,\u201d he said in an interview with the Tennis Channel of his tennis in the period since that defeat to Gasquet earlier this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cI still need to work a lot, this needs to not be an exception, more like a daily basis,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

He even embodies a contradiction at the heart of the sport\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cNothing to lose\u201d has been his mantra all tournament, but when it is over, he will have something to lose \u2014 everything he has gained. For now, world No. 1 Jannik Sinner awaits in the semifinals, a sporting extraterrestrial of a different kind.<\/p>\n

(Photo: Matthew Stockman \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After beating world No. 9 Holger Rune to make the Cincinnati Open semifinals, world No. 136 T\u00e9rence Atmane…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":84702,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[99,428],"class_list":{"0":"post-84701","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84701"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84701\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}