Jannik Sinner’s Cincinnati Open rival Terence Atmane makes huge statement about his greatness

Ewan West 16 Aug 2025 9:09 PM

Jannik Sinner waves to the crowd

Terence Atmane expressed his immense respect for Cincinnati Open opponent Jannik Sinner as he made a bold claim about the Italian star.

Sinner and Atmane are currently facing off in the semi-finals of the Masters 1000 tournament in Cincinnati.

The world No 1 is the defending champion in Cincinnati and did not drop a set in dispatching Daniel Galan, Gabriel Diallo, Adrian Mannarino and Felix Auger-Aliassime en route to the last four.

The Italian entered the semi-final clash on an 11-match winning streak, having secured his maiden Wimbledon title and fourth Grand Slam last month.

Atmane, who is ranked 136th in the world, has made a huge breakthrough with his run to the last four in Mason, Ohio.

The Frenchman has jumped 67 places to a projected new career-high ranking of world No 69 in the Live ATP Rankings with the 143 points he has gained for reaching the semi-finals. His previous best ranking was 118th.

The 23-year-old downed Omar Jasika and Li Tu in straight sets to qualify in Cincinnati. In the main draw, Atmane saw off Yoshihito Nishioka, Flavio Cobolli and Joao Fonseca, before upsetting top 10 stars Taylor Fritz and Holger Rune.

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After his resounding 6-2, 6-3 win over Rune in the quarter-finals, Atmane made a huge statement about Sinner as he looked ahead to the semi-final showdown.

“I don’t want to predict anything because Jannik is, I think, the most incredible player that we have pretty much ever seen in our entire lifetime,” Atmane said in an interview with Tennis Channel.

“So it’s going to be very interesting to also be able to play someone like him, to play someone that is bringing so many crazy things to the tennis world.

“So it’s going to be very interesting. It’s going to be a new challenge for me. I will just still try to do my things once again. It doesn’t matter the ranking, you know?

“It’s going to be a very good one. I’m very happy and very proud to be able to share the court with Jannik.”

Asked about his IQ score of 158, Atmane said: “I don’t consider myself as a genius (smiles) because I don’t want to pretend cocky or to say, you know, ‘I’m a super smart guy.’

“But yeah, I did this very long test. It was 14 hours of test during an entire week for the French Federation of Tennis. I needed some IQ test. And when I’ve done that, the result was 158, so they said this is considered as a genius or whatever.

“But at the end of the day, it helps me because I’m thinking different than some people.”