Who is Terence Atmane? Meet the World No. 136 qualifier who stunned Taylor Fritz to reach the Cincinnati Open quarterfinals

Terence Atmane, French Qualifier and World No. 136, has taken the ongoing 2025 Cincinnati Open by storm, as he secured a stunning upset victory over fourth seed and home favorite, Taylor Fritz, to reach the quarterfinals. This is the best progress that Atmane has made at a Masters 1000 event.

Having made his professional debut in 2022, Atmane's results on the Tour had been nothing special, as the French player had only played 19 main-draw matches in his career, winning only five of them, before the Cincinnati run. He has been successful in the lower-level events, winning five titles on the ITF Tour and four titles on the Challenger Tour, two of which have come in Busan and Guangzhou this year.

Having made his Masters 1000 debut back in 2023, Terence Atmane's previous best result at this level was reaching the third round of the Italian Open last year, where he lost against Grigor Dimitrov. With his career-best run at Cincinnati this year, the Frenchman is poised to break into the Top 100 on the ATP rankings, as he currently sits on No. 93 on the live rankings.

Atmane has been in superb form at the Cincinnati Open, as he secured straight-set victories over Omar Jasika and Li Tu in the qualifiers to enter the main draw. After winning against Yoshihito Nishioka in the first round in straight sets, he won a tough three-set match against 15th-seed Flavio Cobolli in the second round, before putting a stop to Brazilian sensation Joao Fonseca in the third round in straight sets.

Terence Atmane came back from being a set down against Taylor Fritz in the Cincinnati fourth round

In Picture: Terence Atmane in action (Getty)

Before their match in Cincinnati, Taylor Fritz had won his only match against Terence Atmane in two tight tiebreak sets in Shanghai last year. The American player was the heavy favorite to win this match, and he started strong, winning the first set 6-3.

Atmane started the second set strong, getting an early service break to lead 3-0. However, Fritz broke back, and the set stayed even till 5-5. The French player broke in the twelfth game to win the second set. In the third set, Atmane broke in the fifth game, and that one service break was enough as the qualifier served expertly under pressure to win the final set 6-3.

With this win, Terence Atmane has set up a quarterfinal clash against seventh seed Holger Rune, which will be a first meeting between the two players on the ATP Tour.

About the author

Sagnik, a Mass Communication and Journalism graduate, is a tennis journalist at Sportskeeda. Before finding his spot in the tennis writing team, he worked as a junior content specialist for academic content writing firms for a couple of years.

Before putting out any information in the public domain, Sagnik makes sure that every element of his content is well-researched and backed with credible data so that there is no misinterpretation of facts or quotes and ethical standards are maintained. To do so, Sagnik follows reputed websites like the Tennis Channel and Tennis TV, and renowned journalists on social media.

He is a fan of former player Roger Federer, and just like his favorite player, Sagnik likes to bring perfection to his write-ups by providing concise and on-point content. Speaking of the ‘GOAT’ debate, Sagnik believes that it is a bit unfair to compare the legends of the game from different eras who have played on different terms. But if he were to pick one, he’d go for Novak Djokovic based on his tally of 24 Grand Slam titles.

When not writing about tennis and technically analyzing the sport, which he believes are his 'forte', Sagnik indulges in reading books.

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Edited by SAGNIK DATTA