By Richard Pagliaro | Saturday, August 16, 2025Photo credit: Cincinnati Open Facebook
Dealing aces during this inspired Cincinnati run, qualifier Terence Atmane played a comic card before facing Jannik Sinner today.
Moments before the pair stepped on court, Atmane commemorated Sinner’s 24th birthday by giving the top seed a Pokemon card and a heartfelt hug.
After an engaging opening set, Sinner celebrated his birthday bash with a triumphant triple play return to the Cincinnati Open final.
Defending champion Sinner stopped Atmane 7-6(4), 6-2 to score his 26th straight hard-court win—and 200th career hard-court victory.
World No. 1 Sinner surged into his 28th career final, including his eighth career ATP Masters 1000 final.
“Very, very tough match because every time when you play against someone completely new, it’s very difficult,” Sinner said. “The pressure is higher. You know that they deserve to be there. He has beaten incredible players so I knew I had to be very very careful.”
2️⃣4️⃣ and hungry for more 💪
Birthday boy @janniksin ends Terence Atmane’s dream run 7-6 6-2 to reach his 8th Masters final #CincyTennis pic.twitter.com/D14BtmcNwm
— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) August 16, 2025
Clad in a logo-less vanilla t-shirt, mis-matched black and blue wristbands, the engaging Atmane owns a genius IQ, explosive baseline game and is an entertaining presence who was a huge hit with Cincinnati fans. Even after this loss, Atmane paused on his walk off to high-five appreciative fans.
Remember the name 🙌
Terence Atmane gets a proper sendoff from @janniksin and the #CincyTennis fans. pic.twitter.com/e64X7hI5Pq
— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) August 16, 2025
Striking cleanly, Sinner smacked six aces against no double faults, won 32 of 35 first-serve points and did not face a break point in a one hour, 26-minute triumph.
Afterward, Cincy fans serenaded Sinner with a rousing version of “Happy Birthday.”
For Sinner, the song remains the same: control the baseline, compete with calm composure and crack the ball when he steps forward. The sport’s premier hard-court champion will play for his 21st career championship in the final.
“I feel like I handled the situation very well,” Sinner said. “He has huge potential and I think we saw that throughout the tournament. From my side I’m very happy to be in the finals, so let’s see what’s to come.”
The reigning Australian Open, Wimbledon and US Open champion will face either second-ranked rival Carlos Alcaraz or third-seeded Alexander Zverev in Monday’s final.
Atmane is a lot of fun to watch and downright frightening to face when he loads up on his lethal lefty forehand.
Rarely do you see the world No. 1 overpowered on court, but the explosive Frenchman disarmed Sinner at times in the opener, detonating his forehand as he did scoring Top 10 wins over Taylor Fritz and Holger Rune.
Unloading in an incendiary seventh game, Atmane blasted three aces for a 4-3 lead.
That display would unsettle some opponents, but Sinner immediately answered with three consecutive love holds, surging through 17 straight service points near the end of the set.
Sinner slammed an ace to force the first-set tiebreaker.
The qualifier blinked first, committing the first double fault of the day to gift the mini break. Playing lockdown baseline tennis, Sinner drained four errors in the first six points for a 4-2 lead.
In a crackling crosscourt exchange, Atmane stepped in and crushed a fiery forehand winner snapping a 22-shot rally—the longest of the match—to close to 3-5. Though he won that battle, Atmane lost the war netting a backhand to face three set points.
On his second set point, Sinner’s serve found the Frenchman’s backhand jolting a wide return as the US Open champion closed a fierce 46-minute opening set.
Sinner won 29 of 33 serve points in the opening set and hit four more winners—15 to 11—than Atmane.
A highly-skilled and explosive player, Atmane still has room for improvement on his return and volley where he has fine touch, but tends to predictably play the drop volley rather than drive volleys deeper. On return, Atmane has a fairly expansive grip change, so he tends to chip back returns. Sinner recognized it and threw in some effective serve-and-volley plays.
Still, the 23 year-old Atmane threatened the top seed’s serve at the start of the second set. Atmane won six return points in that first game—two more than he’d won the entire first set—but Sinner managed the stress shrewdly and spun a forehand pass holding for 1-0.
That eight-and-a-half minute hold empowered Sinner further and he turned the screws on Atmane in the fourth game. Sinner scalded a crosscourt forehand for double break point—the first break points of the match after 68 minutes of play.
On his second break point, Sinner sent a deep return through the middle, drew the short reply and tomahawked a forehand down the line breaking for 3-1.
A free-flowing Sinner stamped his fifth love hold of the match for 4-1.
Credit the qualifier for sticking to his guns and going down firing big. Atmane saved two match points, including pounding his ninth ace down the T to deny the first.
On his third match point, Sinner slammed a deep return and drew the netted forehand sealing his 12th consecutive win and extending his Cincinnati winning streak to nine matches.
Though Atmane’s amazing Cincinnati run is over it propels him from No. 136 at the start of the tournament to No. 69 in the ATP Live rankings. That won’t be enough to gain direct entry into the US Open main draw because the Flushing Meadows major used rankings from its July cutoff.
That means if you can get to New York, you experience Atmania live in US Open qualifying starting on Monday.
Sinner will try to extend his reign as King of Queen City in the Monday showdown against Alcaraz or Zverev and looks every bit a formidable favorite to defend in Flushing Meadows.
