TERENCE ATMANE: ‘LAST YEAR CHANGED MY LIFE’

FRENCHMAN REFLECTS ON MAGICAL RUN TO CINCY SEMIS

By Richard Osborn

He was the all but unknown French lefty with a yen for Pokémon cards and card tricks, a ravenous gamer who won over the locals with his Reds and Bengals garb. As we learned, Terence Atmane could play a little tennis, too.

After playing his way into the main draw at the 2025 Cincinnati Open, the No. 136th-ranked Atmane would stun Flavio Coboli, Joao Fonseca, Taylor Fritz and Holger Rune in succession to become the first qualifier in a decade to reach the semifinals at the Lindner Family Tennis Center.

Forget the fact that Atmane, who surged into the Top 100 in the PIF ATP Rankings, had but a single tour-level win on the year coming into the tournament. He was suddenly into his first ATP Masters 1000 semi, having earned a high-profile show-court showdown with world No. 1 and defending champion Jannik Sinner.

“This is just the beginning,” he assured us.

Back Cincinnati for the first time since those transformative moments, Atmane confesses that his return didn’t come without an initial touch of anxiety.

“At first, I was very stressed because it’s never easy to come back and do it again,” said the 24-year-old from Saint-Martin-Boulogne in northernmost France. “But I convinced myself to take all the positives that I had here last year. Last year changed my life completely. Just to be back here, I feel so grateful and so happy. The result doesn’t matter. It’s just a blessing to be here. I just want to enjoy every single moment of it and not think about having to defend the points. I want to stay focused on the positive things.”

A run to the Round of 16 earlier this year at the Miami Open, where he earned the third Top-10 win of his young career against Felix Auger-Aliassime, would catapult Atmane to a career-high No. 41. Last week at the ATP Masters 100 Canada, he toppled Jack Draper and Karen Khachanov to reach the third round.

“We all know that I can do a lot of damage on a hard court, so I’m going to try my best to repeat. And why not do better?” he asked. “I’m trying to not set limits for myself. I’m just trying to do the best as I can. Let’s see how far I can go.”

There was a special warmth to Atmane’s run last year. He says he’s experienced it again this week from the moment he stepped off the plane.

“I felt it right away. The fans are shouting my name way more than usual,” said Atmane, who split with longtime coach Guillaume Peyre just prior to the Wimbledon fortnight and has yet to hire a full-time replacement.

“I’ve always loved to play in U.S. It feels like home when I play here. The fact that people come here to support me is just really wonderful, to see the fan base that I have now.”

Those fans have made a habit of gifting him with Pokémon cards before and after his practice sessions, so much so that he says he plans to compile them in special book.

“I’m going record every single Pokémon card that a fan gives me,” he said. “At the end of my career, I’m going to have a full binder with cards. It’s going to be such a good memory to one day give to my kids. There’s a true meaning behind that.”

Sporting a Pokémon T-shirt on Thursday — a present from tour colleague Sho Shimabukuro of Japan — Atmane is still without an apparel sponsor despite his achievements and clear-cut marketability. But the Frenchman isn’t complaining.

“I’m always choosing with my mom [Severin] the outfits that I’m wearing every single day,” he said. “It’s fantastic to share these moments with her.”

He might not have an apparel sponsor, not yet anyway, but the financial boost that’s come with his on-court success has been life-altering, too.

“That’s coming from zero to, let’s say, a lot of money for me. I’m coming from zero,” said Atmane, who remembers receiving his first big prize money check in disbelief. “I couldn’t believe it. I just couldn’t stop crying because, for me, it wasn’t normal to receive that amount of money. I felt like I didn’t deserve it at first, or that there was some mistake. It takes some pressure off because now I don’t have to think about it week to week. My team can now come with me every single week. I can cover this, I can cover that. I’m going to be chill through the end of the year. It’s such a big, big difference.”

Perhaps even more important is his newfound self-belief.

“I’ve reached the semifinal of a Masters 1000. I’m able to win against the best players in the world,” he added. “Why not try my best to reproduce that? The goal for me is just to try to reproduce that effort and to grow as a man and as a tennis player. I think that’s the next step.”