Who is Terence Atmane? French qualifier who stunned Taylor Fritz at the Cincinnati Open

Ewan West 14 Aug 2025 12:30 PM

Terence Atmane hits a forehand

Terence Atmane’s breakthrough run at the 2025 Cincinnati Open continued with a stunning upset of world No 4 Taylor Fritz.

The Frenchman clinched a 3-6, 7-5, 6-3 victory against Fritz in the last 16 of the Masters 1000 tournament.

Atmane has won six matches to progress to the quarter-finals in Cincinnati, having seen off Omar Jasika and Li Tu in qualifying.

He then overcame Yoshihito Nishioka, Flavio Cobolli and Joao Fonseca prior to beating Fritz.

Since the formation of the ATP Tour in 1990, 136th-ranked Atmane is the fourth-lowest-ranked man to reach the quarter-finals at the Cincinnati Masters after Steve Bryan, Borna Coric and Stan Wawrinka.

Who is Terence Atmane?

Atmane was born in the coastal city of Boulogne-sur-Mer in Northern France on January 9, 2002.

According to Atmane’s ATP website bio, he began playing tennis at age seven at his local club after his mother bought him a racket. He had previously played tennis video games Virtua Tennis and Wii Sports.

“I was playing all day every day,” Atmane told ATPTour.com in 2023.

“One day my mom came back home and she said, ‘Okay, enough of video games, I’m going to buy you a tennis racquet and then let’s go to a tennis club and try’. Since then, I’ve never stopped playing tennis.”

His mother, Severine, works for Eurotunnel, while his father, Stephane, owns a renovation company. He has a younger sister named Chanelle.

Atmane’s tennis idol is Fernando Gonzalez, a former world No 5 from Chile renowned for his huge forehand.

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The 6ft4-tall left-hander broke down his ultra aggressive playing style in the same ATP Tour article.

“I’m going full on everything, I try to take every opportunity that I have, every short ball that I have to destroy the ball,” Atmane explained.

“I try to serve as fast and as hard as I can. I have a pretty big forehand… It’s extremely risky and it’s also really intense, physically and mentally.”

Atmane’s career achievements

The 23-year-old has secured four titles from the five finals he has reached on the ATP Challenger Tour — all of which came on hard courts.

Prior to Cincinnati, Atmane held a 5-14 record on the main ATP Tour, with his best previous result at a big event his third round run at the 2024 Italian Open.

He has appeared in three Grand Slam main draws, losing in the opening round at the French Open in each of the last two years and also the 2024 Australian Open.

What impact has Atmane’s Cincinnati run had on his ranking?

Having started Cincinnati as the world No 136, Atmane has soared 43 places to 93rd in the Live ATP Rankings with the 213 points he has gained.

He will, therefore, make his top 100 debut when the rankings update after the event, having reached his previous career-high ranking of 118th in July last year.