Atmane reflects on 'absolutely crazy' week in Cincinnati

Match Reaction

Atmane reflects on 'absolutely crazy' week in Cincinnati

World No. 136 reached first ATP Tour semi-final

Dylan Buell/Getty Images Terence Atmane lost to Jannik Sinner in the semi-finals at the Cincinnati Open on Saturday By ATP Staff

The tennis world could hardly believe Terence Atmane's run this week at the Cincinnati Open, where the No. 136 in the PIF ATP Rankings came through qualifying and earned Top 10 wins against Taylor Fritz and Holger Rune to reach his first tour-level semi-final.

After a 7-6(4), 6-2 defeat to World No. 1 Jannik Sinner in Saturday's semis, Atmane was still coming to grips with his own success.

"Absolutely crazy, insane. I still cannot believe that I made the semi-finals here," he said post-match. "Playing against Sinner today was also a very good memory for myself, and I will remember that for a long time."

Reflecting on the match, in which he did not face a break point in the opening set, Atmane was already processing the lessons he learned from the stadium showdown.

"I think that he was just better than me in the second set. Simple as that," he said. "He took all the responsibilities in the second set. Me, I think that I let him a little bit play his game, just like 1 per cent, and when you play the world No. 1, it's over already [if you do that]."

Atmane admitted his body felt the strain in his eighth match of the week, including two in qualifying. But he credited his mentality, rather than anything physical, for his surprising success this week.

"I worked a lot mentally to be able to stabilise myself, trying to put my mind stronger than my emotions," he offered, discussing what has changed from his middling results on the ATP Challenger Tour earlier this year. "I think that's the key for me to success at a high level. And I think that I will have to repeat this kind of week to make it to the high level."

As a new name to many tennis fans, Atmane was asked at the close of his media availability to describe himself beyond the tennis court. He discussed his love of Japanese culture and food, including his Pokemon card collection, and video games like Fortnite, Minecraft and Call of Duty. He also shared that he has "three wonderful cats" and enjoys finding nice coffee places when he travels to tournaments.

After beating Rune in the quarter-finals, his message on the camera lens shed light into another off-court interest. He wrote "Fermi's paradox?!" — alluding to the possibility of alien life.

"I'm fascinated about the world that we are living in, space, the universe," he added. One thing is for sure: his tennis this week was out of this world.

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