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World No. 61 Terence Atmane sent shockwaves around the tennis world with his Shanghai Masters first-round retirement earlier on Thursday (October 2). The Frenchman later said in his statement that "heat stress" overcame his body so heavily that he had little to no recollection of his time on court.
Atmane has enjoyed a career-best season on the ATP Tour in 2025, having recently reached the semifinals of the Cincinnati Masters. By virtue of his exploits over the last few months, the 23-year-old received a direct entry into this year's Shanghai Masters. Sadly enough, he couldn't make the most out of the opportunity as he was forced to retire 40 minutes into his first-round encounter against Argentina's Camilo Ugo Carabeli.
At the time of his throwing in the towel, it seemed as though Terence Atmane was just struggling from an undisclosed illness. However, he later took to Instagram on Thursday to inform fans that he "couldn't breathe" and that "his head hurt pretty badly". By his own admission, he got so disoriented that his body went into panic mode and began "sending signals" for him to retire.
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"Today, after the first point of the match both of my hands were shaking. After the second game and a comfortable 2/0 lead I immediately felt my entire body shaking and I was suffocating after every point," Terence Atmane wrote in his Instagram stories after pulling out from Shanghai Masters midway through his 1R match. "Which leads me to a point where I basically couldn't breathe and my head started to hurt pretty badly. I felt like no matter what I was doing I just couldn't breath. I called the physio immediately but no words came out of my mouth. I panicked, I was shaking."
"It was impossible for me to remember where I was. It was impossible for me to tell you which day of the week we were. My body sent me a signal, the signal to stop this immediately."
The World No. 61 added that he was going to take the next few weeks off to regroup from his latest setback.
"I'm still confused about what happened today and I don't remember much. The Heat Stress that I've faced today could have been worse than losing my consciousness for an hour and just rapid heartbeat," he further wrote in his statement. "It's time for me to take some time off before heading to the last tournaments of the season."
Terence Atmane not the only player to retire midway through Shanghai Masters 1R
For what it's worth, Terence Atmane had company in local favorite Yibing Wu also retiring during his own first-round outing at the 2025 Shanghai Masters. The Chinese World No. 158 was trailing Czech qualifier Dalibor Svrcina 5-7 when he couldn't continue anymore due to a left thigh injury.
Besides Atmane and Wu's opening-round matches, every other encounter on Thursday was completed, with the likes of Adrian Mannarino, David Goffin, and Benjamin Bonzi getting back to winning ways.
