Atmane Earns Biggest Career Win At Cincinnati Open

Terence Atmane
Terence Atmane (photo: Cincinnati Open)

CINCINNATI/WASHINGTON, August 14, 2025 (by Michael Dickens)

What a week it’s been for 23-year-old Frenchman Terence Atmane at the Cincinnati Open. He just keeps winning.

In the span of a week, the left-handed-hitting native of Saint Martin-Boulogne, France has gone from qualifier to quarterfinalist in the ATP Masters 1000 event at the Lindner Family Tennis Center in Mason, Ohio.

By the time that the 136th-ranked Frenchman upset World No. 4 and fourth seed Taylor Fritz of the United States, 3-6, 7-5, 6-3, in one hour and 59 minutes on Court 3 Wednesday evening, not only was Atmane elated by what he had accomplished – his first career Top-10 win after going 0-3. He was driven to tears of joy – welling up on court after shaking hands with Fritz. Then, Atmane sat at his bench for a moment of happy reflection as the crowd showered him with applause. Nothing like a show of emotions – a good cry – after a great win.

“I couldn’t believe it to be honest,” Atmane said during his on-court interview with ATP Media. “I feel like I was hitting the volley with the frame [on match point]. I thought I was going to have to go back and serve again. I was shaking. The ball came in somehow and I was thinking ‘please don’t touch it. Please give me this one.’ I just cannot describe this feeling. I’m super happy. So happy.”

Fritz, the only player to reach the round of 16 at all four ATP Masters 1000 events on hard courts this season, aimed to become the fourth American man to reach three-plus Cincinnati Open quarterfinals in this century, following Andy Roddick (6), Mardy Fish (4) and John Isner (3). Instead, Atmane became the lowest-ranked man to earn a Top-5 win since No. 276 Gaël Monfils defeated No. 4 Stefanos Tsitsipas at Montreal in 2023 and he’s through to his first ATP Masters 1000 quarterfinal in five appearances. 

“You have to be totally crazy to play tennis,” admitted Atmane, who is 5-4 on the ATP Tour after going 19-10 playing in ATP Challenger Tour events earlier in the season. He won a pair of Challenger titles in Busan and Guangzhou, both in April. “I think everyone here is crazy. I’m one of them!” 

Atmane, who triumphed in two rounds of qualifying to reach the 96-player main draw, has since strung together wins over Yoshihito Nishioka, Flavio Cobolli, Joao Fonseca and Fritz to reach the last eight. Playing in his first ATP Masters 1000 fourth round, he’s the first qualifier to advance to an ATP Masters 1000 quarterfinal since Max Purcell at Cincinnati two years ago – and he’s the lowest-ranked Cincinnati quarterfinalist since No. 152 Borna Coric of Croatia, who won the 2022 title.

“What a week, I have to say. I’m so happy that finally my work is paying off,” said the hard-working Atmane, who is up to No. 93 in the PIF ATP Live Rankings. He will make his Top 100 debut at the end of the tournament after achieving a career-high ranking of No. 118 by reaching the third round at Rome last year. “As I said with my coach, ‘This is just the tournament I need to repeat this kind of level every single week on a daily basis.’ It’s nice to be in a quarterfinal of a Masters 1000 but I think I need to also work to stay in this kind of situation. There is still a lot of things to work on but I’m in a good way and with good people around me. I’m super happy and it motivates me a lot to do better and do more.”

Rune advances to quarterfinals after Tiafoe retires injured

On Thursday evening, Atmane will face World No. 9 Holger Rune of Denmark in the quarterfinal round on P&G Center Court – the largest of the show courts – arguably as a reward for what he has achieved so far in Cincinnati.

Rune and World No. 14 and American No. 3 Frances Tiafoe met in a rematch of their Cincinnati Open semifinal last year on Wednesday afternoon.

Rewind 12 months and Tiafoe saved two match points to win that tussle against Rune, advancing to his first ATP Masters 1000 final, and in doing so, became the first American men’s finalist in Cincinnati since John Isner in 2013. This time, though, Rune looked to garner his 100th hard-court win and first Top-20 triumph since beating World No. 2 Carlos Alcaraz in the Barcelona final last April.

As it happened, Rune won but at the expense of Tiafoe retiring with a lower back injury. The Danish No. 1 led 6-4, 3-1 when Tiafoe retired from their fourth-round match after the 10th-seeded American built an early 3-0 lead. However, it was short-lived and at 4-5, Tiafoe received treatment on his lower back. Eventually, with Tiafoe unable to serve at a full pace, he retired after Rune had won the first set 6-4 and jumped ahead 3-1 in the second set.

The 27-year-old Hyattsville, Md.-native, who was a Cincinnati finalist last year, will hope to recover in time for the US Open, which begins on Aug. 24. He’s a two-time semifinalist at Flushing Meadows.

“From 4-4, when I got the break and at 5-4 when he had the medical timeout, that’s when I felt something was not right with him and after obviously, I could see he was struggling a little bit,” Rune said in his post-match interview. “As the game is, I tried to move him as much as possible. It’s never nice to finish a match like this and I wish him the best recovery.”

Around the Cincinnati Open

After rain washed out play Tuesday night, the reining champion and this year’s top seed Jannik Sinner was in action on Wednesday as the men’s draw struggled to complete its fourth round (round of 16) matches to pare down to the last eight players. A nearly-three-hour rain delay, which interrupted play at 2:55 p.m and continued until play resumed at 5:43 p.m., didn’t help matters as both Sinner and No. 5 seed Ben Shelton were among the players competing at the time.

• World No. 1 and top seed Jannik Sinner, who turns 24 on Saturday, extended his 23-match winning streak on hard courts when he defeated 89th-ranked qualifier Adrian Mannarino of France, 6-4, 7-6 (4), in one hour and 48 minutes on P&G Center Court. Sinner, who struck 25 winners – including 12 aces – outpointed Mannarino 79-66. He extended his winning streak against French competition to 21 matches and Wednesday’s win over Mannarino advanced him into his fifth quarterfinal of the season.

“He is a very tough opponent. Very different from other opponents, not only because he is a lefty but how he hits the ball. It is very low,” Sinner said during his on-court interview . “I just tried to serve well and tried to see what I could do in the return games.

“He was serving very well, especially on the Ad side, on the wide one was very precise. I changed the position, trying to make him feel uncomfortable. I struggled a bit to close it out, but this can happen in this sport and I am very happy to be in the next round.”]

Next, Sinner will play No. 23 seed Felix Auger-Aliassime of Canada, who needed just 74 minutes to defeat No. 63 Benjamin Bonzi of France, 6-4, 6-3. Auger-Aliassime became the fifth man to record 20 hard-court wins this season (20-8) and improved to 9-1 in ATP Masters 1000 round of 16s since 2021.

• No. 5 seed Ben Shelton of the United States defeated No. 53 Roberto Bautista Agut of Spain, 7-6 (3), 6-3, in one hour and 49 minutes, in a third-round match postponed by rain Tuesday and delayed further by rain Wednesday afternoon. It was Shelton’s 21st hard-court win of the season – third-best on the ATP Tour – and he’s on an eight-match winning streak after winning the Canadian Open last week in Toronto. Shelton struck 15 aces and converted both of his break-point opportunities. The win advanced him to face No. 22 seed Jiri Lehecka of Czechia in the round of 16 Thursday afternoon.

• No. 2 seed Carlos Alcaraz of Spain, who leads the ATP Tour in wins (51) and titles (5) this season, beat 98th-ranked lucky loser Luca Nardi of Italy, 6-1, 6-4, in 80 minutes to advance to the quarterfinal round. The 22-year-old Spaniard, who has reached the final in his last six events, tied Sergei Bruguera for 4th-most ATP Masters 1000 quarterfinals among Spaniards in series history and passed Lorenzo Musetti to hold the most ATP Masters 1000 wins this season with 18. He hit 11 winners and outpointed Nardi 65-47.

Next, Alcaraz will face No. 9 seed Andrey Rublev of Russia, who needed just 64 minutes to ease past No. 71 Francisco Comesana of Argentina, 6-2, 6-3. Comesana, who defeated Rublev in their only other meeting last year in the first round at Wimbledon, attempted to advance to his first ATP Masters 1000 quarterfinal. However, Rublev had other ideas. He converted five of eight break points and outpointed Comesana 59-40.

• No. 3 seed Alexander Zverev of Germany advanced to the quarterfinals after No. 14 seed Karen Khachanov of Russia retired from their fourth round match after just 70 minutes on the Grandstand with Zverev leading 7-5, 3-0. It was Zverev’s sixth career win over Khachanov in nine meetings – and third in six ATP Masters 1000 head-to-heads. He struck 16 winners and outpointed his opponent 51-37.

Earlier, Zverev completed his rain-suspended third-round match against No. 27 seed Brandon Nakashima of the United States Wednesday afternoon, serving out a 6-4, 6-4 victory. 

Wednesday’s Cincinnati Open results

Thursday’s Cincinnati Open order of play

By the numbers

With his win over Brandon Nakashima Alexander Zverev tied Andy Roddick for 10th most ATP Masters 1000 victories with 157. Novak Djokovic is the career leader with 414.

“Quotable …”

“I ended last year on a high note and then had a good off-season. I had a good level at the start of the year but I just wasn’t winning the close ones. But I started to have better results in the clay season and then the grass season. I’m really happy to be playing consistently and passing through the rounds.”

– World No. 12 Karen Khachanov of Russia, during his on-court interview Tuesday, after defeating American wild card Jenson Brooksby to advance to the fourth round.

 

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